While there was an increase in binge drinking across the U.S., the problem was worse in Maryland. The national average hike was 8.9 percent, while it was 20.8 percent in Maryland.

The biggest increase was registered by females whose binge drinking habits logged a 34.7 percent boost from 2005 to 2012, according to a study made by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington in Seattle.

Like Us on Facebook

The study was published online on Thursday in the Journal of Public Health.

By county, Montgomery logged the fastest hike in binge drinking, which is four drinks imbibed in a short period of time for women and five drinks for men. But the highest level was registered in Queen Anne's County, reports the Baltimore Sun.

In contrast, heavy drinking is one drink for males and two drinks for females per day over 30 days. The study found that heavy drinking was also up in Maryland at 25.7 percent versus a national average of 17.2 percent.

Binge drinking has been blamed for the series of sexual assaults across campuses in the U.S. and in popular spring break spots such as the Panama City Beach in Florida where several arrests were made recently after a video surfaced of drunk university students on spring break sexually molesting in a public place a female student who was drugged, while the crowd was watching.

Binge drinking has also been linked to greater risk of injury and alcohol poisoning, while heavy drinkers run the risk of heart ailments, cancer and other chronic diseases.

To address the growing social and health problems caused by drinking, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and wife Carla launched on Thursday a new campaign to reduce underage and binge drinking in the state. They rolled out the campaign with other public officials at the Concord High School in Wilmington.

The new campaign, which targets the youth aged 12 to 25, extends existing programs by bombarding with anti-drinking messages schools, billboards, buses, newspapers, radio programs and social media sites across the state, reports Associated Press.

Tagsbinge drinking, Maryland