• Nationwide
• At UC Berkeley

Nationwide

Consumption Patterns

• Research consistently shows that people tend to drink the heaviest in their late teens and early to mid-twenties (Naimi et al. 2003)
• Studies consistently indicate that about 80 percent of college students drink alcohol. (NIAAA, 2002)
• College students are more likely to use alcohol and to drink more heavily than their non-college peers and surveys show little change in this difference over the last 20 years. (NIAAA, 9/2005)
• All national surveys of college drinking report variation in alcohol use by gender, race and geographical region. Men drink at higher levels than women. The difference, however, is not as dramatic as might be expected. Four of the surveys found 50-60% of college men in the samples reported heavy drinking episodes, with 34-40% of women reporting heavy drinking. Trends over time suggest fewer differences between men and women. There are marked racial differences among student groups (Wechsler, Fulop, Padilla, Lee & Patrick, 1997). White students reported nearly three times as much heavy high-risk drinking as black students. Hispanic students reported approximately 25% less heavy drinking than white students. Finally, regional variations were found. Alcohol use was less prevalent in Western colleges than in Northeastern or North Central colleges. (NIAAA 9/2005)
• Binge/High Risk Drinking:
  • about 40 percent of college students engage in binge drinking (5+ drinks for men and 4+ drinks for women per occasion)
  • about 20 percent binge three or more times over the previous 2 weeks (NIAAA 2002).

Harm Associated with Drinking

Most people underestimate the nature and range of adverse consequences of drinking to both drinkers and nondrinkers. Alcohol-related harm includes drunk driving; car, bike and pedestrian crashes; property damage; vandalism; falls; drownings; burns; sexual assault and rape; disruption of sleep and study; depression and suicidality. (SGCPRUD 2007)

The costs to the US of underage drinking is substantial. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Institute of Medicine's landmark report to Congress in September 2003, "Reducing Underage Drinking: a Collective Responsibility" found that underage alcohol use costs the nation an estimated $53 billion annually. The costs include:

Violent Crime: Traffic Crashes: Burns: Drowning: Suicide Attempts: Fetal alcohol Syndrome: Alcohol Poisonings: Treatment:

$29,368,000,000 $19,452,000,000 $189,000,000 $426,000,000 $1,512,000,000 $493,000,000 $340,000,000 $1,008,000,000

New research shows underage drinking can cause alterations in the structure and function of the developing brain, which continues to mature into the mid-to late twenties, and may have consequences on long term thinking and memory skills (SGCPRUD 2007).

The negative consequences of alcohol use on college campuses are particularly serious and pervasive. Each year in the US:

• An estimated 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes (Hingson et al. 2005).
• Approximately 600,000 students are unintentionally injured while under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al. 2005).
• Approximately 700,000 students are hit or assaulted by other students who have been drinking (Hingson et al. 2005).
• About 100,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (Hingson et al. 2005).
• 11 percent of college student drinkers report that they have damaged property while under the influence of alcohol (Wechsler et al. 2002).

The more alcohol a person consumes, the more likely he or she is to experience negative consequences. The following reflects the percentage of high risk/binge drinkers who experienced harm in a single school year as a result of drinking.

• 51.1% did something they later regretted
• 47.1% missed a class
• 41.1% forgot where they were or what they did
• 36.4% got behind on schoolwork
• 34.8% argued with friends
• 32.2% had unplanned intercourse
• 22.8% damaged property
• 18.4% got hurt or injured
• 15.3% had unprotected intercourse
• 9.1% got in trouble with the police
• 1.0% needed medical treatment for an overdose. (Wechsler, Nelson, 2001)

Drinkers create second-hand effects as well. Nationally, non-high risk drinkers and abstainers were asked to indicate whether they had suffered various consequences of drinking:

• 60.0% had their studying or sleep disrupted
• 47.6% had to take care of a drunken student
• 29.2% had been insulted or humiliated
• 19.5% experienced and unwanted sexual advance
• 19.0% had a serious argument or quarrel
• 15.2% had property damaged
• 8.7% had been pushed, hit, or assaulted
• 1.0% were the victims of sexual assault or date rape. (Wechsler et at. 2002)
  

Prevention Paradox

The relationship between consumption and harm is very stable over time and across different groups of college students. However, since there is still a risk associated with lower levels of consumption and there are many more students who drink at that level, there are many more students who report that they were hurt or injured at lower, rather than higher, levels of consumption. This is known as the Prevention Paradox - that the heaviest drinkers (those at "high risk") account for only a small percentage of the overall alcohol-related harms in a population. The majority of harms at the population level occur among drinkers consuming at a less extreme level associated with a lower, but non-zero level of risk. (Weitzman and Nelson, 2004).

At UC Berkeley

Fall 2006 California Safer Universities Study survey of 459 UC Berkeley undergraduates

• 72.1 percent drank alcohol in the past year,
• 27.7 percent reported binge drinking in the previous two weeks, and
• 49.8 percent of underage students drank alcohol in the past 30 days.
• Key findings about the harm associated with this drinking during the fall semester included:
  • 22.7% did something they later regretted
  • 16.6% missed a class
  • 17.6% forgot where they were or what they did
  • 19.2% got behind on schoolwork
  • 14.9% argued with friends
  • 1.8% got into a physical fight
  • 13.5% had unplanned intercourse
  • 3.5% damaged property
  • 8.7% got hurt or injured
  • 5.6% had unprotected intercourse
  • 1.8% got in trouble with the police
  • 18.0% passed out
  • .4% needed medical treatment for an overdose.
  • 13.6% became very rude, obnoxious, or insulting. (PRC, 2007)

Spring 2006 National College Health Assessment survey of 992 Cal students

• 3.5% of respondents reported that alcohol use affected their individual academic performance within the last school year, i.e. received an incomplete, dropped a course, received a lower grade in a class, on an exam, or on an important project. (Nat'l reference group: 7.6%)
• Students who drank alcohol reported the following consequences during the last school year as a result of their own drinking:
  • 10.5% were physically injured (Reference 18.5%)
  • 2.1% physically injured another person (Reference 4.3%)
  • 3.1% were involved in a fight (Reference 6.6%)
  • 27.1% did something they later regretted (Reference37.2%)
  • 20.6% forgot where they were or what they had done (Reference 30.4%)
  • 0.6% had someone use force or threat of force to have sex with them (Reference 1.4%)
  • 6.6% had unprotected sex. (Reference 15.1%)
• Respondents consistently overestimated the typical student's use of alcohol over the past 30 days:
  • Students who never used alcohol: Reported 24.2%; Estimated 4.7%. (Reference: 15.2%; 2.5%)
  • Students who used one or more days: Reported 63.5%; Estimated 67.9%. (Reference: 72%; 61.9%)
  • Students who used daily: Reported 0.7%; Estimated 27.4%. (Reference: 0.6%; 35.6%.)
    (ACHA, 2006)

Students for a Safer Southside (SFSS) survey of nearly 500 students in May 2006

• 46 percent reported drinking at least two to three times a month.
  Of these, 65.3 percent reported having been drunk at least once per month since the beginning of the academic year.
• 25.4 percent of all respondents reported drinking at least once a week.
• 54 students (10.8%) reported that a fight or other disturbance occurred during the party.
• The most common source of alcohol for students is large grocery stores (58%), closely followed by friends (52%) and parties (50%).
• Parties are a top source for underage drinkers to acquire alcohol probably due to the large number of unregulated parties on and around campus. 70% to 91% of students thought it was "very easy" or "easy" for someone under 21 to obtain alcohol from parties, whether at apartments, Greek houses, co-operative living situations or dormitories.
• The only source of alcohol in which the majority of students thought it was more "difficult" than "easy" to obtain alcohol was bars. (SFSS Report 2006)

Other

• Data from UC student surveys in 2003 and 2004 confirmed that off-campus parties are the most common setting for alcohol-related injuries, assaults, and sexual harassment (PRC). Maybe because other settings have more policies and enforcement set up.
• City of Berkeley Police estimate that 90% of the party complaints they respond to are in the south campus area. (City Council Study Session, 2/27/07)