Alcohol Harms over a Period of Alcohol Policy Reform: Surveys of New Zealand College Residents in 2004 and 2014.

Kypros Kypri,Brett Maclennan,Jennie Connor

doi:10.3390/ijerph17030836

Abstract

Background: We estimated the change in the prevalence of harms attributed by students to their drinking and to others’ drinking, over a decade of concerted effort by university authorities to reduce antisocial behaviour and improve student safety. Interventions included a security and liaison service, a stricter code of conduct, challenges to liquor license applications near campus, and a ban on alcohol advertising. Methods: We used a pre-post design adjusting for population changes. We invited all students residing in colleges of a New Zealand University to complete web surveys in 2004 and 2014, using identical methods. We estimated change in the 4-week prevalence of 15 problems and harms among drinkers, and nine harms from others’ drinking among all respondents. We adjusted for differences in sample sociodemographic characteristics between surveys. Results: Among drinkers there were reductions in several harms, the largest being in acts of vandalism (7.1% to 2.7%), theft (11% to 4.5%), and physical aggression (10% to 5.3%). Among all respondents (including non-drinkers), there were reductions in unwanted sexual advances (14% to 8.9%) and being the victim of sexual assault (1.0% to 0.4%). Conclusion: Alcohol-related harm, including the most serious outcomes, decreased substantially among college residents in this period of alcohol policy reform. In conjunction with evidence of reduced drinking to intoxication in this population, the findings suggest that strategies to reduce the availability and promotion of alcohol on and near campus can substantially reduce the incidence of health and social harms.

Highlights

University students are renowned for ‘heavy episodic’, ‘binge’, or ‘risky single episode’ drinking, i.e., consuming enough alcohol, rapidly enough, to become intoxicated
In studies making the comparison, which were mainly performed in the USA in the early 2000s, college students in their late teens and early 20s were found to consume a greater volume of alcohol and had a higher prevalence of consuming ≥5 drinks on a single occasion than thein non-student peers [2]
Of the 2497 students living in the Dunedin residential colleges in 2004, 1594 (64%) completed the questionnaire and a further 68 (3%) submitted responses that met a minimum data requirement

Summary

Introduction

University students are renowned for ‘heavy episodic’, ‘binge’, or ‘risky single episode’ drinking, i.e., consuming enough alcohol, rapidly enough, to become intoxicated. This is often characterised as at least four or five drinks (40–60 g ethanol) within two hours. We invited all students residing in colleges of a New Zealand University to complete web surveys in 2004 and 2014, using identical methods. We estimated change in the 4-week prevalence of problems and harms among drinkers, and nine harms from others’ drinking among all respondents. In conjunction with evidence of reduced drinking to intoxication in this population, the findings suggest that strategies to reduce the availability and promotion of alcohol on and near campus can substantially reduce the incidence of health and social harms

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion