Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 31;9(9):2823.
doi: 10.3390/jcm9092823.

Prevalence of Hangover Resistance According to Two Methods for Calculating Estimated Blood Alcohol Concentration (eBAC)

Chantal Terpstra  1   2 , Andrew Scholey  1 , Joris C Verster  1   2 , Sarah Benson  1
Affiliations

Prevalence of Hangover Resistance According to Two Methods for Calculating Estimated Blood Alcohol Concentration (eBAC)

Chantal Terpstra et al. J Clin Med. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Hangover resistance may be linked to an increased risk of continuing harmful drinking behaviours as well as involvement in potentially dangerous daily activities such as driving while hungover, mainly due to the absence of negative consequences (i.e., hangover symptoms) the day after alcohol consumption. The aim of this study was to examine the occurrence of claimed alcohol hangover resistance relative to estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC). A total of 1198 participants completed an online survey by answering questions regarding their demographics, alcohol consumption and occurrence of hangover. Two methods were used to calculate eBAC, one based on the modified Widmark Equation (N = 955) and the other from an equation averaging the total body water (TBW) estimates of Forrest, Watson, Seidl, Widmark and Ulrich (males only) (N = 942). The percentage of participants who claimed to be hangover resistant decreased rapidly with increasing eBAC and only a small number of hangover resistant drinkers remained at higher eBACs. Comparisons of the eBACs calculated by the two methods revealed significantly higher BACs when using the modified Widmark equation. These findings suggest that additional research for eBAC calculations is needed to improve accuracy and comprehensiveness of these equations for future alcohol hangover research.

Keywords: BAC; alcohol; hangover; hangover resistance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

S.B. has received funding from Red Bull GmbH, Kemin Foods, Sanofi Aventis, Phoenix Pharmaceutical, and GlaxoSmithKline. Over the past 36 months, A.S. has held research grants from Abbott Nutrition, Arla Foods, Bayer, BioRevive, DuPont, Kemin Foods, Nestlé, Nutricia-Danone, and Verdure Sciences. He has acted as a consultant/expert advisor to Bayer, Danone, Naturex, Nestlé, Pfizer, Sanofi, Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical, and has received travel/hospitality/speaker fees Bayer, Sanofi, and Verdure Sciences. Over the past 36 months, J.C.V. has held grants from Janssen, Nutricia, and Sequential, and acted as a consultant/expert advisor to Clinilabs, More Labs, Red Bull, Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical, Toast!, and ZBiotics. C.T. has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of hangover resistance after alcohol consumption at different eBAC levels for Method 1 [26] and Method 2 [44]. p < 0.05 with Chi Square test of independence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Verster J.C., Scholey A., van de Loo A., Benson S., Stock A.K. Updating the definition of the alcohol hangover. J. Clin. Med. 2020;9:823. doi: 10.3390/jcm9030823. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Verster J.C., Stephens R., Penning R., Rohsenow D., McGeary J., Levy D., McKinney A., Finnigan F., Piasecki T.M., Adan A. The alcohol hangover research group consensus statement on best practice in alcohol hangover research. Curr. Drug Abuse Rev. 2010;3:116–126. doi: 10.2174/1874473711003020116. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Verster J.C., Kruisselbrink L.D., Slot K.A., Anogeianaki A., Adams S., Alford C., Arnoldy L., Ayre E., Balikji S., Benson S. Sensitivity to experiencing alcohol hangovers: Reconsideration of the 0.11% Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) threshold for having a hangover. J. Clin. Med. 2020;9:179. doi: 10.3390/jcm9010179. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wiese J.G., Shlipak M.G., Browner W.S. The alcohol hangover. Ann. Intern. Med. 2000;132:897–902. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-132-11-200006060-00008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Penning R., McKinney A., Verster J.C. Alcohol hangover symptoms and their contribution to the overall hangover severity. Alcohol Alcohol. 2012;47:248–252. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/ags029. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources