Abstract
Hazardous alcohol consumption is ranked above illicit drug use with regards to health deterioration and social and economic burden. This study sought to clarify the factors influencing alcohol consumption and its prevalence in young adults. Demographics, alcohol consumption and lifestyle information were gathered via anonymous questionnaires during 2011–2019, crossing Reading, Surrey and Farnborough universities, UK. Controlling for confounders, a multinomial logistic regression was performed using SAS® 9.4 software. A total of 1440 students (43.5% males, 56.5% females; 54.4% Caucasians) with a mean (SD) age of 19.9 (2.73) were included. Among them, 68.9% consumed alcohol frequently and 31.7% had ≥12 units/week. Statistical analysis revealed that males consumed twice more alcohol than females, odds ratio (OR) 1.67 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.34–2.09), p-value < 0.01. Caucasians consumed up to five times more alcohol than other ethnicities, OR 4.55 (3.57–5.56), p-value < 0.01. Smokers consumed three times more alcohol than non-smokers, OR 2.69 (1.82, 3.99), p-value < 0.01. In general, the levels of alcohol consumption were positively associated with the levels of physical activity, OR 2.00 (1.17–3.42), p-value < 0.05 and negatively associated with recreational sedentary screen-time activities in males, OR 0.31 (0.12–0.86), p-value = 0.03. Focusing alcohol interventions toward Caucasians, smokers and physically active students, particularly males, may guide university strategies to reduce alcohol-related societal harm and risks of morbidity and mortality.
Highlights
Young adulthood (18–25 years) is a period of exploration, excitation, exposure to peer challenge and adaptation of lifestyle behaviours that cement during later adulthood [1]
Recreational sedentary screen-time: We found recreational sedentary screen-time engagement to be a factor negatively correlated with the levels of alcohol consumption in males, odds ratio (OR) 0.31 (0.12–0.86), p-value = 0.03 (Table 2)
We have found that the levels of alcohol consumption in university young adults are influenced by gender, ethnicity, smoking, the levels of Physical activity (PA) and recreational sedentary screen-time
Summary
Young adulthood (18–25 years) is a period of exploration, excitation, exposure to peer challenge and adaptation of lifestyle behaviours that cement during later adulthood [1]. University is a unique environment where young adult males and females of different ethnic cultural backgrounds gather together. They are unbound by familial constraints with the freedom to make lifestyle choices to suit personal needs. Social norms in micro-environments encouraging alcohol intake, such as bars/clubs, student halls and campus events increase the risk of unsafe alcohol consumption greatly at university [3,4]. This manifests predominately by integrating into binge drinking (≥5 drinks on one occasion) as part of university cultures [5].
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