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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
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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)
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