Latest on College Drinking

Parents Forum
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<p>Alcohol-related deaths among U.S. college students rose from 1,440 deaths in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005, along with increases in heavy drinking and drunk driving, according to an article in the July supplement of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. </p>

<p>The special issue describes the results of a broad array of research-based programs to reduce and prevent alcohol-related problems at campuses across the country. These studies resulted from the Rapid Response to College Drinking Problems Initiative, a grant program supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. </p>

<p>“This supplement is a valuable resource that underscores the growing number of research-driven strategies that college administrators and health officials can put in place to address serious student drinking problems,” says Acting NIAAA Director Kenneth Warren, Ph.D. </p>

<p>Reviewing the magnitude of the college alcohol problem, Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D, M.P.H., director of NIAAA’s Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, and colleagues analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government sources. They found that serious problems persist, as indicated by the increase in drinking-related accidental deaths among 18- to 24-year-old students. In this population, most unintentional alcohol-related injury deaths result from traffic-related incidents. In addition, the researchers found the proportion of students who reported recent heavy episodic drinking -- sometimes called binge drinking, defined as five or more alcoholic drinks on any occasion in the past 30 days -- rose from roughly 42 percent to 45 percent, and the proportion who admitted to drinking and driving in the past year increased from 26.5 percent to 29 percent. </p>

<p>“These are tragically and unacceptably high figures that indicate an urgent need for colleges and surrounding communities to implement evidence-based prevention and counseling programs,” says Dr. Hingson. The results of NIAAA’s rapid response grants, he says, demonstrate the wide range of individual, group, and community-level approaches that can influence student behavior and challenge the culture of college drinking. </p>

<p>Through the initiative, NIAAA scientists worked with 15 colleges facing alcohol-related crises, pairing them with five multidisciplinary teams of prevention and intervention experts. The collaboration yielded a mix of programs that showed different benefits. Examples from their findings include the following:</p>

<p>· James F. Schaus, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Central Florida found that brief motivational interviews proved effective for high risk drinkers seen in a busy college health clinic. Compared to a control group, students who participated in two sessions reported consuming less alcohol six months later and had fewer drinking-related problems nine months later.</p>

<p>· Hortensia Amaro, Ph.D., and colleagues at Northeastern University in Boston developed a one-on-one counseling program for students with alcohol and drug policy violations. Six months later, students who received the intervention were drinking less than counterparts who had not been through the program.</p>

<p>· Joseph A. LaBrie and colleagues at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles evaluated the long-term effectiveness of a motivational-enhancement group intervention for first-year college women. Participants consumed significantly less alcohol across 10 weeks of follow-up, but not at six-month follow-up, suggesting the need for booster sessions during the first year of college.</p>

<p>· Two separate studies developed programs in which colleges worked closely with their surrounding communities, using measures such as increased police patrols in problem neighborhoods and raising student awareness of their responsibilities as community residents. The studies found reductions in heavy drinking and a decrease in the number of off-campus incidents involving students. One study was led by Mark D. Wood, Ph.D., of the University of Rhode Island, and the other by Robert F. Saltz, Ph.D., of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, working with two universities in Washington state. </p>

<p>· Another study found that colleges have made online alcohol-policy information more available and accessible to students, parents, and other interested parties. This shift may reflect a greater engagement of colleges and universities in the issue of drinking on campus in general, according to lead author Vivian B. Faden, Ph.D., acting director of NIAAA’s Office of Science Policy and Communications.</p>

<p>Dr. Warren notes that the rapid response grants grew out of the recommendations from the 2002 report of the NIAAA-sponsored Task Force on College Drinking. He adds that NIAAA remains committed to working with academic leaders and researchers to bridge the gap from research to practice in developing evidence-based college alcohol prevention and treatment programs</p>

<p>EDIT by Moderator: The above is from <a href="http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jun2009/niaaa-15.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jun2009/niaaa-15.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Thanks. I am copying to my Chief of Police, and others with whom I frequently am in disagreement.</p>

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<p>Just one more routine propaganda example by the ever incessant American Taliban </p>

<p>Yawn.</p>

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<p>did it also occur that there are a lot more students in college nowadays?</p>

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<p>^^ Yeah that thought did occur to me, but it is a 27% increase in alcohol related deaths from 1998 to 2005. I don’t know if the student population increased by that percentage. </p>

<p>The other factor is whether cars are safer now with more widely available airbags, so the mortality should be less but is instead more.</p>

<p>At least the study tells me that drinking remains a presistent problem.</p>

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<p>Is there a list of the colleges with the alcohol related deaths? how about the sexual assaults and accidents? </p>

<p>If it is down to College A and College B which are both “fits,” alcohol use/abuse could easily be a “tip” for us in choosing.</p>

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<p>Again, I think we need to separate out alcohol related traffic incidents vs alochol related injuries. Moving drinking age from 18 to 21 came about to prevent drunk driving of young people. In my opinion it has contributed to binge drinking and unsupervised drinking, and that probably has caused more alcohol related injuries. College students are binge drinking before social events, they do it in some hidden places so they wouldn’t be caught. When drinking was legal at 18, schools were more aware of those parties and there was more over sight. Today, students are afraid to help someone who is drunk because they are afraid of getting into trouble for under aged drinking. </p>

<p>One young death is too many, especially when it is untimely, but statistically 400 increase is not huge.</p>

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<p>Hey mini – During an addictions seminar, I heard the statement that if a person doesn’t drink alcohol before the age of 21 there is only a very small chance they will ever become addicted to it. If they wait until 25 to try alcohol, there is almost no chance. It was something to do with brain development.
Have you ever come across anything like that in research?</p>

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<p>I agree with oldfort.
I also think the focus of the police should change from handing out UA citations to being more aggressive with respect to drunk driving. Take those cops busting dorm parties and park them outside of bars - they can follow those who get in cars and nab them.
Set up check points. Demonstrate ZERO tolerance for drinking and driving.<br>
The system we have established is not working. Kids nabbed walking home might just try driving home to evade police detection.
I fully support the counseling efforts and collaboration with the community. But put the resources where they make sense.
Kids walking home after a few beers are now fearful of police. Kids driving after drinking SHOULD be fearful of police. But most don’t get caught. Time to make a change…regardless of the laws…it’s how you enforce the laws that makes a difference.</p>

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<p>I’d like to know the statistics for alcohol lenient colleges like GW and wet campuses like Rice. Supervision is always better than banning, in my opinion.</p>

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<p>“Hey mini – During an addictions seminar, I heard the statement that if a person doesn’t drink alcohol before the age of 21 there is only a very small chance they will ever become addicted to it. If they wait until 25 to try alcohol, there is almost no chance. It was something to do with brain development.”</p>

<p>Yes, there is lots of research to that effect. In fact, age of first use is the best single predictor of future alcoholism and/or serious alcohol problems in adulthood. One of the reasons the U.S. has a significantly lower rate of alcoholism, as well as cirrhosis/liver cancer deaths than virtually all countries in northern Europe is that their age of first use is lower, and the higher drinking age here has had substantial positive impact. (Another reason is the genetics linked to alcoholism - we have a larger population of non-northern European descent. But even here, the age of first use applies.)</p>

<p>I am not in favor of banning alcohol on campuses. However, there are colleges where that has been done relatively recently (Univ. of Oklahoma specifically comes to mind) where that has had tremendously positive outcomes. (They banned it for everyone, including faculty, university president, etc.)</p>

<p>Underage drinking (including binge drinking) is substantially lower than it was before the changes in drinking age in the 1980s, as are accidental motor vehicle deaths in this age group. </p>

<p>There are more college students today than in the 1980s, but folks forget that the average age of an undergraduate in the U.S. today is 24.5 years old. 18-year-olds are the exception, not the rule.</p>

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<p>The way that statistics are twisted in the OP is very frustrating.</p>

<p>Two brief examples:</p>

<p>The rate of death is not mentioned. Well, there are 15,900,000 college students in the US. So the rate of death is about one per 10,000 annually. Let’s see you improve on that.</p>

<p>Second, anyone who knows anything knows that five drinks for a man is not binge drinking. How many of the binge drinkers stopped at 5 or 6 drinks spread out over the evening? I know that when I was in college there were many times I stopped around 5 or 6 drinks. But, I never binged on alcohol.</p>

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<p>suggestion- leak " some" information about your misspent youth to your children.* hey- who hasn’t used the excuse " it was the seventies" ? *
They will rebel by doing the opposite.
;)</p>

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<p>“How many of the binge drinkers stopped at 5 or 6 drinks spread out over the evening? I know that when I was in college there were many times I stopped around 5 or 6 drinks.”</p>

<p>Actually, there is some “experimental data” on this question. First of all, back in 2003, NIAAA changed the definition to reflect the amount of alcohol needed to raise the BAC to .08, which is about five drinks in two hours. They thought doing so might result in a lower reported binge drinking rate. Scientists went out and tested it - and the result is, it didn’t. That is the reason they still use the “one occasion” or episodic definition.</p>

<p>Secondly, we know that the data is an underestimate, and perhaps a severe one. College students who drink 5 drinks in an episode tend to report how many drinks they’ve had by one. So someone who actually has five drinks is likely to say s/he only had 4, and hence would not be reported as a binge drinker. But a study undertaken at Duke found that, when asked to pour a drink, the average student poured a drink that 1.8X that of the standard. So, on average, the median NON-binge drinking 4-drink drinker actually had 5 x 1.8X or 9 drinks.</p>

<p>What this means is that students who had 9 drinks or even more are often counted among the non-binge drinkers.</p>

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<p>

And that is a number that was chosen for political reasons, not scientific reasons.</p>

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<p>A couple of the studies quoted in the OP mentioned one on one “motivational interviews” . </p>

<p>Are there other studies showing these are successful? Only to “targeted” population that have had a binge drinking episodes…or to everyone?</p>

<p>I am not sure the pre-freshman on-line programs that schools like Stanford have mandidated in the past are successful…but…I would think that the one-on-one would be. Although…must be very expensive.</p>

<p>Another “question” –
“anyone who knows anything knows that five drinks for a man is not binge drinking” . Wouldn’t 5 drinks in a one or two hour period be binge drinking? I would also expect that “portion control” for college students is a relative term. While a can or bottle of beer can be measured, 5 mixed drinks and punches in a college setting probably contain much more liquer than a drink mixed at a bar.</p>

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<p>“Are there other studies showing these are successful? Only to “targeted” population that have had a binge drinking episodes…or to everyone?”</p>

<p>The BASICS program (which is used at UWashington and several other universities) is targeted to “non-normative” drinkers - those who drink significantly more than average, but are not assessed as yet being alcohol dependent. Non-dependent drinkers will moderate their drinking over time “naturally”, but what BASICS does is accelerate that moderation, and also help keep students out of dangerous situations. It has been shown to be effective, and has been reviewed in peer-reviewed journals. They have also found that the program is best delivered by well-trained peers rather than professionals.</p>

<p>“I am not sure the pre-freshman on-line programs that schools like Stanford have mandidated in the past are successful.”</p>

<p>The evidence for these shows some moderate improvement, espeically when coupled with social norms marketing (on campuses with average or below average binge rates to begin with), or enhanced enforcement.</p>

<p>“And that is a number that was chosen for political reasons, not scientific reasons.”</p>

<p>No. Studies of impairment based on BAC go back almost 50 years.</p>

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<p>What this means is that students who had 9 drinks or even more are often counted among the non-binge drinkers.</p>

<p>I don’t see how you could have nine drinks in a 24 hour period and still be able to stand up, unless you were an alcoholic.</p>

<p>I also wonder since many people are on medication that affects alcohol metabolism, if that information is considered when looking at consumption.</p>

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<p>One of the alcoholic related college deaths was a CC student poster … I doubt that was a yawn for his family or friends. PS - this poster was a very “vocal” defender (even proponant) of drinking within ones limits.</p>