College student-athlete’s engagement in risky substance use is watched and paid close attention more closely than almost any other group. When compared to their non-athlete peers, studies have shown they use alcohol at higher rates and experience more related consequences. Pain and substance use often co-occur, and college students also are more likely to experience acute pain and lower physical functioning after college. This study examines the correlation between pain, catastrophizing, alcohol and cannabis use, and consequences among student-athletes.
Participants consisted of 549 student-athletes from two Division 1 NCAA universities from the same region of the United States. All student-athletes in this study attended one harm-reduction meeting. Data collection occurred from September 19th, 2019, through March 13th, 2020. Alcohol use was measured via The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Concise. Alcohol-related consequences, cannabis use, cannabis-related consequences, pain experience, pain catastrophizing, and sociodemographic and covariates were also measured. Results showed that 94% of student-athletes reported using alcohol in the past year and 27% in the past month.
The relationship between pain and pain catastrophizing was found to be stronger among females than males. There was a direct effect between pain and alcohol-related consequences but not between pain and alcohol use/frequency. Initial research did show that there could be a correlation between pain and binge drinking, but further research is needed. Overall, these results agree with the growing literature on pain and substance use. They showed that pain may be essential to evaluate when assessing student-athletes for substance use.
Takeaway: Findings show that college student atheletes experiencing pain report more alcohol-related consequences than non-athlete students.