Alcohol Consumption In Students Research Articles

Nutritional status, cardiovascular health, VO2 max and habits in university students: a comparison between two health promotion careers

Introducción. Los estudiantes universitarios se encuentran en una etapa del ciclo vital clave para la adopción de estilos de vida.Objetivo. El propósito de este estudio fue determinar y comparar el VO2máx, el porcentaje de masa grasa, el perfil bioquímico y el consumo de alcohol y tabaco en estudiantes universitarios de dos carreras.Materiales y métodos. Participaron en la investigación 53 estudiantes universitarios de primer año con un promedio de 19.25 años de edad. 30 eran de la carrera de Pedagogía en Educación Física y 23 de Nutrición y Dietética de la Universidad de La Frontera en el año 2014. Se evaluó peso, talla, índice de masa corporal, contorno cintura, porcentaje de masa grasa, presión arterial, perfil bioquímico y VO2máx.Resultados. El 32% de los estudiantes presentó exceso de peso, 50.9% reportó alteración de la presión arterial, 28.3% tuvo prehipertensión y 22.6%, hipertensión arterial. A su vez, el 50.9% presentó un nivel sobre lo normal de masa grasa, el 18.8% manifestó hábito tabáquico y el 41.5% reconoció consumir alcohol con frecuencia. En relación al VO2máx, se observó que un 48.9% estaba ubicado en el rango de malo a regular. Respecto a la comparación por carreras, se encontraron diferencias significativas en las variables talla, VO2máx (capacidad aeróbica máxima) y porcentaje de masa grasa (p<0.05).Conclusiones. Los estudiantes son propensos al desarrollo de enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles, lo que supone una situación preocupante, pues en el área profesional se transformarán en promotores de estilos de vida saludable.

Accessibility and Consumption of Alcoholic Drinks in Metro Manila Colleges and Universities

Objective. Alcohol consumption of university students in Metro Manila was determined and compared to other countries in the region and in the West. Methods. A survey of students from ten randomly selected public and private universities in Metro Manila was done. Results. A total of 2,930 students participated, 46.1% from public schools and 58.9% were female. Of the total students, 81.6% had drank an alcoholic drink in their lifetime; and 15.6% drank beer, 22.5% drank wine and 11.4% drank distilled spirits before they were 13 years old. For the past 30 days, 30.2% drank beer, 30.8% distilled spirit and 18.7% wine; 16.9%, 7.4% and 19.7% binged on beer, wine and distilled spirits, respectively; and 29.1% got drunk. Five percent of the students had drank inside their school. Of those who drove any motorized vehicle, 28.9% drove when they had drank and of those who use prohibited drugs, 66.7% mixed the two. Thirty one percent said they tried to quit drinking in the past 12 months and 7.5% admitted they have a drinking problem. Conclusion. Alcohol consumption of Metro Manila students approximates those of other countries. For policy and monitoring purposes, it is recommended that this survey be done regularly with a nationwide scope and compare this with other countries for best practices.

Initial Progress Toward Development of a Voice-Based Computer-Delivered Motivational Intervention for Heavy Drinking College Students: An Experimental Study.

BackgroundComputer-delivered interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing alcohol consumption in heavy drinking college students. However, these computer-delivered interventions rely on mouse, keyboard, or touchscreen responses for interactions between the users and the computer-delivered intervention. The principles of motivational interviewing suggest that in-person interventions may be effective, in part, because they encourage individuals to think through and speak aloud their motivations for changing a health behavior, which current computer-delivered interventions do not allow.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to take the initial steps toward development of a voice-based computer-delivered intervention that can ask open-ended questions and respond appropriately to users’ verbal responses, more closely mirroring a human-delivered motivational intervention.MethodsWe developed (1) a voice-based computer-delivered intervention that was run by a human controller and that allowed participants to speak their responses to scripted prompts delivered by speech generation software and (2) a text-based computer-delivered intervention that relied on the mouse, keyboard, and computer screen for all interactions. We randomized 60 heavy drinking college students to interact with the voice-based computer-delivered intervention and 30 to interact with the text-based computer-delivered intervention and compared their ratings of the systems as well as their motivation to change drinking and their drinking behavior at 1-month follow-up.ResultsParticipants reported that the voice-based computer-delivered intervention engaged positively with them in the session and delivered content in a manner consistent with motivational interviewing principles. At 1-month follow-up, participants in the voice-based computer-delivered intervention condition reported significant decreases in quantity, frequency, and problems associated with drinking, and increased perceived importance of changing drinking behaviors. In comparison to the text-based computer-delivered intervention condition, those assigned to voice-based computer-delivered intervention reported significantly fewer alcohol-related problems at the 1-month follow-up (incident rate ratio 0.60, 95% CI 0.44-0.83, P=.002). The conditions did not differ significantly on perceived importance of changing drinking or on measures of drinking quantity and frequency of heavy drinking.ConclusionsResults indicate that it is feasible to construct a series of open-ended questions and a bank of responses and follow-up prompts that can be used in a future fully automated voice-based computer-delivered intervention that may mirror more closely human-delivered motivational interventions to reduce drinking. Such efforts will require using advanced speech recognition capabilities and machine-learning approaches to train a program to mirror the decisions made by human controllers in the voice-based computer-delivered intervention used in this study. In addition, future studies should examine enhancements that can increase the perceived warmth and empathy of voice-based computer-delivered intervention, possibly through greater personalization, improvements in the speech generation software, and embodying the computer-delivered intervention in a physical form.

ALDH2*2 and peer drinking in East Asian college students

ABSTRACTBackground: The ALDH2*2 allele (A-allele) at rs671 is more commonly carried by Asians and is associated with alcohol-related flushing, a strong adverse reaction to alcohol that is protective against drinking. Social factors, such as having friends who binge drink, also contribute to drinking in Asian youth. Objectives: This study examined the interplay between ALDH2*2, peer drinking, and alcohol consumption in college students. We hypothesized that the relationship between ALDH2*2 and standard grams of ethanol per month would vary based on the level of peer drinking. Methods: Subjects (N = 318, 63.25% female) were East Asian college students in the United States who reported drinking alcohol. Data were from the freshman year of a university survey that included a saliva DNA sample. ALDH2*2 status was coded ALDH2*2(+) (A/G and A/A genotypes) and ALDH2*2(−) (G/G genotype). Peer drinking was students’ perception of how many of their friends “got drunk”. Results: Main effects of ALDH2*2(−) and having more friends who got drunk were associated with greater alcohol consumption. The ALDH2*2 × peer drunkenness interaction showed a stronger positive association with alcohol consumption for ALDH2*2(−) versus ALDH2*2(+) at increasing levels of peer drunkenness. Follow-up comparisons within each peer drunkenness level identified significantly higher alcohol consumption for ALDH2*2(−) compared to ALDH2*2(+) at the all friends got drunk level.Conclusion: There was evidence of a stronger effect for ALDH2*2(−) compared to ALDH2*2(+) with greater alcohol use when students were more exposed to peer drinking. Findings contribute to a growing literature on the interrelationships between genetic influences and more permissive environments for alcohol consumption.

Designing A Method for Alcohol Consumption Prediction Based on Clustering and Support Vector Machines

In this study, an implementation of several data mining techniques is presented, including decision trees, Support Vector Machines (SVM), Bayesian Networks and K-Nearest Neighbor and their comparison using different evaluation metrics such as True Positive Rate (TpRate), False Positive Rate (FpRate) and Recall, with the dataset “STUDENT ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION”, that provides information of alcohol consumption in teenagers in Portugal. High alcohol consumption rate in teenagers in society, high schoolers and college students, has become a social problem with alarming data showing they start consuming alcohol between 10 and 14 years and this obviously has a huge impact in their behavior, especially with situations such as binge drinking. At the end of the study, the results found show that Support Vector Machines (SVM) have a better accuracy rate than other techniques used and corroborate that the proposed method it is quite efficient and highly precise for detection of students consuming alcohol, improving the results obtained in previous similar studies.

Examining the Impact of Alcohol and Other Drug Education Exposure on Student Alcohol Consumption.

This investigation examined the association between alcohol and other drug (AOD) prevention/education programs and drinking behaviors among students aged 12 to 17 years. We conducted a secondary analysis of the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health ( N = 17,736). AOD prevention/education was assessed in three school settings: special class, regular class, and outside regular class. Outcome variables included past year alcohol use and current heavy episodic drinking. Associations were assessed via one-way analyses of variance and multiple regression models. There was a significant effect of program exposure on alcohol use ( p<.001) and heavy episodic drinking ( p = .002). Regression results found AOD prevention/education exposure ( p = .004) was significant, indicating that exposure decreased past year use. No difference was found based on heavy episodic drinking. Increasing exposure to AOD prevention/education programs is warranted and encouraged.

The role of drinking norms and social networking sites on alcohol consumption in university students

ABSTRACTBackground: Descriptive alcohol norms refer to the perception of how frequently and how much peers consume alcohol. University students frequently overestimate descriptive norms, which is positively associated with their own alcohol consumption. Exposure to alcohol-related content on social networking sites (SNS) is also predictive of alcohol-related problems.Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of descriptive norms as a potential mediator of the relationship between alcohol exposure via SNS and problematic alcohol consumption.Methods: A total of 175 students in a Canadian university completed the Alcohol and Social Networking Practice Questionnaire to assess activity on SNS, the degree of exposure to alcohol-related content on SNS via peers, and perceptions of the estimated frequency and quantity of alcohol consumed by other students. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test was administered to assess a participant’s alcohol consumption patterns.Results: Both frequency and quantity norms partially mediated the relationship between alcohol exposure on SNS and drinking behavior.Conclusion: These results suggest that SNS may be useful to identify at-risk students and may serve as an effective platform for personalized normative feedback interventions.

Acceptability of targeting social embarrassment in a digital intervention to reduce student alcohol consumption: A qualitative think aloud study.

ObjectiveIncreasing knowledge about alcohol-related harms, changing social norms, or encouraging drinking within safe unit levels often fails to change behaviour in young people. A novel intervention called ‘OneTooMany’ was developed, which targets the short-term social, and potentially, embarrassing consequences of drinking alcohol. The aim of this paper was to explore its acceptability, and to determine any features that might influence its effectiveness as a means of reducing alcohol consumption.MethodsParticipants were 23 young adults (aged 18–30) currently studying at university (n = 18) or in the first six months following graduation (n = 5). A think aloud interview approach was employed. Three main themes were identified in a deductive thematic analysis.ResultsEmbarrassing experiences were a normalised part of drinking occasions, while some were actively avoided, others were celebrated. Humour served as a device to engage and interest participants, but could also diminish intervention messages. OneTooMany prompted reflections on many regrettable drinking experiences, but the participants did not see themselves as the target audience for this intervention.ConclusionsInterventions may benefit from focusing on some of the short term, embarrassing consequences of excessive alcohol consumption. Further research is needed to ensure that reflections on past behaviour are helpful in addressing future behaviour.

Examination of Drinking Habits and Motives of Collegiate Student-Athletes

Universities across the United States have reported consistently high rates of alcohol use and abuse among students during the past 20 years. The college student alcohol consumption level is considered an important public health concern. The increase in problematic drinking seems to be campus wide, but there is an understudied at-risk demographic—collegiate student-athletes. The purpose of this study is to examine student-athletes’ motives for alcohol consumption, drinking patterns, and alcohol-related negative consequences. Student-athletes (N = 283) from five Midwestern universities completed an online questionnaire assessing this behavior. Male student-athletes reported higher levels in all three categories than females. In addition, differences were found in the drinking motives of individual and team sport student-athletes. Unlike previous studies, Division I student-athletes did not differ from Division III with respect to these behaviors. Male student-athletes seem particularly at-risk for problematic alcohol consumption. Additionally, differences were found in motives experienced for alcohol consumption based on sport type (i.e., individual versus team). Level of play was not found to influence drinking motives or alcohol consumption which may signify participation in intercollegiate athletics is a greater influence than division. Differences found in gender and sport type may provide insight to help decrease dangerous drinking habits of student-athletes.

Alcohol consumption of German medical students: comparing study home and abroad

Alcohol consumption of German medical students: comparing study home and abroad

DRINKING AND DRIVING AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BAC GIANG PROVINCE AND BINH THUAN PROVINCE

Background: Alcohol consumption and driving after drinking have become major public health problems worldwide. Time of first getting drunk is becoming earlier among young people and alcohol has become an important risk factor for injuries, especially traffic injuries among the youth. Objective: To assess the patterns of alcohol consumption and drink-driving behaviour of high school students aged from 15-18. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 2,625 high school students in 2 provinces of Bac Giang and Binh Thuan. Results: The average age of first time drinking was 14.4, the average age of first time getting drunk was 15.5. The proportion of students drinking in the past year was 25.9%, of which in Binh Thuan province was 17.6% and that in Bac Giang province was 33.2%. Among students who drank before, 80% of them reported of consuming from 1 to 2 drinks, while 8.6% reported consuming 3 or 4 drinks on a typical day when drinking. The reported rate of drink-driving among these students was 12.1%. Conclusion: Alcohol consumption and driving after drinking among high school students are alarming in Vietnam. The findings suggest an urgent need for a multi-sectorial approach to curtail drink driving among high school students in Vietnam as well as a need of developing an accessible model in the community to support young people to limit the drinking and drink-driving behavior. Key words: alcohol consumption, drink-driving, student

Desarrollo y análisis de confiabilidad del cuestionario para la evaluación de percepción de riesgo sobre el consumo de alcohol en estudiantes universitarios cubanos

El estudio se orientó al desarrollo y análisis de la confiabilidad del Cuestionario para la evaluación de percepción de riesgo sobre el consumo de alcohol en estudiantes universitarios. La muestra quedó compuesta por 1377 estudiantes universitarios cubanos. Se utilizó el análisis categórico de componentes principales, el análisis de conglomerados en dos etapas y los árboles de decisión. Se identificaron dos dimensiones, la primera se relacionó con el componente motivacional-conductual de la percepción de riesgo y la segunda con la información sobre los riesgos del consumo. Ambas dimensiones mostraron elevados índices de confiabilidad y se relacionaron con los tres clúster identificados de acuerdo con la adecuación de la percepción de riesgo respecto al consumo de alcohol. El árbol de clasificación logró un 84.4% de buena clasificación, destacándose como predictores los ítems de la dimensión motivacional-conductual. El instrumento diseñado para la evaluaciónde la percepción de riesgo sobre el consumo de alcohol en estudiantes universitarios mostró adecuados niveles de confiabilidad que favorece su aplicación en este contexto.

Combining self-affirmation and implementation intentions to reduce heavy episodic drinking in university students.

Studies testing the effects of self-affirmation on alcohol-related cognitions and behavior in university students have produced equivocal results. Because self-affirmation is a motivational technique (i.e., designed to reduce defensive processing) it may need to be supplemented with volitional techniques, such as forming if-then plans, to translate positive intentions into behavior. Participants (N = 348) were randomly assigned to conditions in a 2 (self-affirmation) × 2 (implementation intention) between-participants factorial design. Participants completed a self-affirmation task (i.e., values essay) or not, read a summary about the health risks of binge drinking (8/6 units for men/women), and then completed an implementation intention task (i.e., forming if-then plans) or not. Participants then completed measures of message derogation, perceived risk, and intention as well as alcohol consumption 1 week later. All main and interaction effects for self-affirmation were nonsignificant. In contrast, participants who formed implementation intentions (vs. not) reported drinking fewer units of alcohol and engaged in binge drinking less frequently at 1-week follow-up. Additional analyses revealed that affirming a social value attenuated the effect of self-affirmation on intention, but augmented the effect of implementation intentions on behavior. Overall, the findings provide additional evidence for the positive effects of implementation intentions but question the use of self-affirmation to reduce alcohol consumption in university students. (PsycINFO Database Record

El consumo de alcohol en universitarios. Estudio de las relaciones entre las causas y los efectos negativos

Esta investigación analizó los principales motivos que originaron el consumo de alcohol en los estudiantes de la Universidad de Huelva, cuyo objetivo fue conocer las causas, los efectos negativos y la relación entre los factores del consumo de alcohol. Se siguió una metodología descriptiva, transversal, que utilizó un cuestionario ad hoc como instrumento de recogida de datos. Participaron 1.165 estudiantes matriculados en la Universidad de Huelva durante el curso 2012/2013. El muestreo fue estratificado y dentro de cada estrato se optó por un procedimiento aleatorio simple. Se realizaron análisis bivariados, correlaciones, chi-cuadrado, varianza, medias y desviaciones típicas; se evaluó la frecuencia del consumo y se efectuó una reducción factorial. Los resultados más relevantes del estudio mostraron que algunas variables correlacionaron positivamente, así como los factores de la escala. El grado de significatividad y los índices de fiabilidad de éstos fueron relativamente altos. Las conclusiones indican que entre la edad de consumo y el sexo no existen diferencias significativas, ya que ambos sexos comienzan el consumo de alcohol en el tramo de 16 a 20 años. La relación entre las variables curso y frecuencia de consumo fue inversa: en niveles inferiores, el consumo aumenta y, en superiores, disminuye. Asimismo, se hace necesario la puesta en marcha de medidas de prevención para contrarrestar el consumo de alcohol en los universitarios y sus efectos negativos para la salud.

Prevalence and profile of alcohol consumption among university students in Ecuador

ObjectiveAlcohol consumption is one of the main health and social problems in Ecuador. The aim of this study was to explore gender differences in the prevalence and psychosocial profile of problematic consumers among university students. MethodWe surveyed 3,232 students by using the AUDIT and psychosocial scales. To discriminate the explanatory value of each variable, a CHAID segmentation analysis was used. ResultsThe prevalence of alcohol consumption was 92.24% in men and 82.86% in women. In total, 49.73% of men and 23.80% of women reported problematic consumption. In men, the profile of problematic consumption was defined by higher scores in anxiety and depression, especially if they showed higher levels of psychological stress and lower life engagement. In women, problematic consumption showed a tendency towards psychological inflexibility, especially in those with lower life engagement. ConclusionThere is a need to prioritise attention to alcohol consumption in university students and to design different interventions for men and women.

Drinking Patterns and Behavioral Consequences: A Cross-Sectional Study among Romanian University Students.

BackgroundAlcohol/binge drinking among university students has become a major public health problem. Many of young students will be exposed to substantial changes in living arrangements, socialization groups and social activities during the transitional period.AimThe aim of this study was to analyse the alcohol consumption in Romanian university students, and to describe the behaviours occurring after drinking.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on 468 undergraduate students, from a university for medicine and law. Of these students, 35.5% were males and 64.5% were females. The mean age of students was 21.9 ± 3.22 years. Validated anonymous paper questionnaires were completed voluntary by the students. Questionnaires contained demographic items, six questions for determining the level of alcohol consumed in terms of quantity and frequency, and 19 statements or problems resulting from drinking.ResultsThe findings of the study showed that males drunk more units of alcohol/week than females (p<0.001). The prevalence of abstainers was 10.8% in males and 17.6% in women. Heavy drinkers (drinking 5 or more drinks more than once a week) were more common among male (19.3%) than among female students (16.2%). Most frequently, drinking behaviours are related to academic performance, and the possible link between poor academic performance and alcohol consumption appears tenuous and merits further investigation.ConclusionEffective intervention strategies should be implemented to prevent students’ alcohol consumption and adverse health and social consequences resulting from this behaviour.

Impact of brief self-affirmation manipulations on university students' reactions to risk information about binge drinking.

Binge drinking is associated with an array of negative health consequences and is particularly prevalent in university students. Health-risk messages about alcohol may fail to change such behaviour because they are dismissed or derogated. The present study sought to compare the effect of three brief self-affirmation manipulations on message processing, message acceptance, and subsequent alcohol-related behaviour in university students. Participants (N=307) were randomly allocated to condition (kindness questionnaire, values essay, attributes questionnaire, control questionnaire) before reading a health-risk message about binge drinking. After reading the message, participants completed measures of message processing (message reactance, message evaluation, counter-arguing) and message acceptance (perceived risk, intention, plans) as well as a manipulation check. Alcohol consumption was assessed 1week later. Participants in all three self-affirmation conditions scored significantly higher than participants in the control condition on the manipulation check measure. All other self-affirmation effects were non-significant. While the three self-affirmation manipulations were found to be self-affirming, they failed to impact on measures of message processing, message acceptance, or subsequent behaviour. The findings concur with previous research that questions the use of self-affirmation to reduce alcohol consumption in university students. Current self-affirmation manipulations may not be strong enough to overcome defensive processing of health-risk messages about alcohol in students and/or prime social goals that are related to the domain under threat (i.e., alcohol consumption), thereby nullifying any positive self-affirmation effects. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Health-risk messages to reduce alcohol consumption (e.g., binge drinking) in university students may fail due to defensive processing (e.g., message derogation). Self-affirmation has been proposed as a technique to bolster one's self-integrity and promote open-minded processing of health-risk messages. Most previous studies that have presented health-risk messages about alcohol to university students have used a values essay to self-affirm participants with equivocal results. What does this study add? There are few studies that have directly compared different self-affirmation manipulations. All three self-affirmation manipulations were found by participants to be self-affirming, consistent with the idea that there are multiple ways individuals can self-affirm, but had no significant effects on message processing, message acceptance, or behaviour. Self-affirmation manipulations may lead individuals to reflect on interpersonal values that are related to alcohol consumption in students and may therefore prime the very cognitions and behaviour that they seek to reduce.

Alcohol Brief Intervention in a university setting: A small-scale experimental study.

Alcohol misuse among university students is commonplace. This study aimed to assess whether Alcohol Brief Intervention would be effective in reducing hazardous alcohol consumption in students compared to an alcohol information leaflet. Participants ( n = 125) assessed as higher risk drinkers using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test Consumption were randomly assigned to receive an Alcohol Brief Intervention ( n = 67) or an information leaflet ( n = 58), with 82 (66%) completing a follow-up assessment. Alcohol consumption ( F(1, 80) = 14.52, p < 0.001) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test Consumption scores ( F(1, 80) = 23.63, p < 0.001) significantly decreased in both groups post-intervention; however, the groups did not significantly differ. Further research is recommended.

Drinking, abstinence, and academic motives: Relationships among multiple motivational domains and alcohol use in college students

BackgroundDrinking, abstinence, and academic motives have been previously linked with alcohol consumption in high school and college students; however, little research has examined the impact of such sources of motivations concurrently. ObjectiveDrawing from self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000), the current study tested the hypothesis that alcohol-related and academic motives would be associated with one another along internal vs. external focused dimensions. We also examined the relative influence of these motives on alcohol consumption. MethodsCollege students (N=226) completed self-report measures assessing drinking motives, abstinence motives, academic motives, and alcohol-related outcomes. ResultsFindings suggest that drinking motives are related to abstinence motives but not academic motives. Both forms of alcohol-related motives were related to alcohol use and consequences; no associations between academic motives and alcohol variables were observed. Conclusions/importanceThe lack of associations among academic motives, alcohol-related motives, and alcohol variables departs from previous findings suggesting that academic motives impact alcohol use. The current findings indicate a greater understanding of the interplay of motivational sets related to salient issues for youth, such as academics, is needed in order to expand intervention models for alcohol use in such populations.

Personalidad, edad de inicio y problemas por consumo de alcohol en estudiantes

The aims were to describe the occurrence of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems in Argentinean students, and analyze differences in risk behavior, alcohol-related problems and sensitivity to reward and punishment, as a function of heavy episodic drinking, drunkenness episodes and age at drinking onset. We analyzed the relationship between alcohol consumption and drinking social norms. The final sample was composed by 106 students. Subjects with drunkenness episodes had more negative consequences and greater sensitivity to reward and punishment, while those with heavy episodic drinking had more problems resulting from alcohol consumption. Moreover, students with early drinking onset showed greater sensitivity to reward. Students who perceived greater alcohol consumption among their peers consumed more alcohol themselves. These results highlight the association between personality and societal variables and the probability of exhibiting risky alcohol consumption.