Widespread dangerous alcohol consumption in university populations is a public health issue in the United States. Though the practice is widely reported and documented, mitigation of college student drinking on any scale is a daunting task plaguing community health officials and school leadership teams. The research concerning alcohol’s negative effects on student’s live is increasing clear, however additional behavioral associations have not been studied as extensively. Risky forms of drinking may often be accompanied by modified food consumption patterns for a variety of purported reasons. This paper describes the findings of a scoping review of the current literature surrounding food and alcohol disturbance in college students.
The research team began the scoping review by developing their research focus to include current literature containing data regarding the intentional disordered consumption of food concurrently with drinking in college student samples within the United States. The literature search produced an initial 286 articles relevant to the subject matter, all published between 1979 and 2020. This initial pool was then trimmed to include only studies which possessed the following criteria and contents: English language, empiric in nature, human subjects design, measures of food and alcohol disturbance, examinations of the intertwined motivations of disordered eating and alcohol use, and alcohol consumption measures which were not limited to only experiences of bulimia nervosa. Following the trimming and filtering process, 39 articles were deemed eligible for the review. These articles underwent critical appraisal using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, in addition to quantitative data extraction and collation.
Results of the review found inconclusive generalizations regarding prevalence, race/ethnicity, and gender discrepancies throughout studies. Common traits, characteristics, and other variables which correlated frequently with food and alcohol disturbance included masculinity, narcissism, stress, coping motives, peer influence, and internalized sexual beliefs. Alcohol-related consequences were increased overall in students who reported food and alcohol disturbance.
Takeaway: research concerning food and alcohol disturbance among college students is limited but may provide insight into potential traits of at-risk individuals, in addition to delineating elevated probabilities of alcohol-related consequences.