'Women outdo men in boozing at fancy dress parties'

London, Jan 4 (UNI) Decked up for a fancy dress party, women are more likely to beat the men at binge drinking.

According to the study, alcohol consumption is more among men in social gatherings except when they involved guests wearing fancy dress-- especially with a sexual theme and it shows that women drink more than men at fancy dress parties.

''One of the more interesting findings was that young women drank more heavily than males at themed events, it is rare to find any situation where women drink more than men, and these events tended to have sexualised themes and costumes,'' said lead author Dr John Clapp from San Diego State University.

The researchers carried out interviews and took breath samples from 1,304 people attending 66 American parties.

Details of types of party, size, loudness of music, drug use, drinking games and types of alcohol consumed were noted. Just over 15 per cent of the parties had themes, including some of a sexual nature - including lingerie, ''anything but clothes'' and ''just had sex''.

The average Breath Alcohol Content (BrAC) of men did not vary between fancy dress and non-themed parties - 37 mg alcohol per 1,000 ml of breath compared to 36 mg/1,000ml.

However, female guests at fancy dress parties had average BrAC readings of 49 mg/1,000ml, compared to 33 mg/1,000ml at gathering without themes.

Dr Clapp, whose research was published yesterday in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, added his findings were more accurate than previous studies because he attended the parties rather than basing their findings on attendees' hazy memories, the Daily Telegraph reported.

''By going out into the field and doing observations and surveys, including breath tests for alcohol concentrations, we were able to mitigate many of the problems associated with recall of behavior and complex settings, '' he added.

UNI XC ARB DB1042