Alcohol misuse among college students is a well-known public health concern. A recent study aimed to quantify the risk of student harmful drinking by creating a link to campus incidents and emergency department visits. The goal was to create a model that could be applied to many college campuses to reduce overall harm.
In this study, student enrollment data from 2010 to 2016 was collected and linked to medical records at the student health clinic and emergency department on a college campus. An Incident Management Response System recorded the date, time, location, and type of incidents that involved drugs, alcohol, or violence on or around campus. Risk markers such as demographic variables, Greek or athletic affiliation, academic affiliation, use of on-campus counseling services, and clinical risk markers were used to identify students who were believed to be more at risk for harmful drinking.
This study consisted of over 183,000 students, and the risk markers as well as harmful drinking outcomes indicated that the model used was reliable in predicting student risk. All predictors except for being a member of a university athletic team were linked to increased risk. The results show that this tool can be applied to other college campuses to screen for high-risk students and potentially reduce harmful drinking outcomes.
Take Away: In a longitudinal study, risk factors for student alcohol use were shown to be valid when compared to harmful drinking events monitored over the course of 6 years. This model of risk reduction may be applied to other college campuses to mitigate harmful student drinking.
Ngo, D.A., Rege, S.V., Ait-Daoud, N., Holstege, C.P. (2019). Development and validation of a risk predivtive model for student harmful drinking—A longitudinal data linkage study. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 197 (102-107). Doi.org/10.016/j.drugalcdep.2019.01.016