But we were just having some fun… (Rather, do you have a drinking problem?)

guest — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:33:42 GMT

Football, tail-gating, beer … you know the scene. Parties with binge-drinking are a dangerous part of today’s culture. Scary.

Little wonder an estimated 1,700 college students succomb to alcohol-related deaths each year and an estimated one-third are “at risk for problem drinking.” Whether or not you are a college student, this AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) can help you assess if you have a drinking problem.

Be wise,

Nancy

Please circle the answer that is correct for you

1. How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?

Never • Monthly or less • 2?4 times a month • 2?3 times a week • 4 or more times a week

2. How many standard drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when drinking?

1or2 • 3or4 • 5or6 • 7to9 • 10 or more

3. How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?

Never • Less than monthly • Monthly • Weekly • Daily or almost daily

4. During the past year, how often have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?

Never • Less than monthly • Monthly • Weekly • Daily or almost daily

5. During the past year, how often have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking?

Never • Less than monthly • Monthly • Weekly • Daily or almost daily

6. During the past year, how often have you needed a drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?

1• Never • Less than monthly • Monthly • Weekly • Daily or almost daily

7. During the past year, how often have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?

Never • Less than monthly • Monthly • Weekly • Daily or almost daily

8. During the past year, have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?

Never • Less than monthly • Monthly • Weekly • Daily or almost daily

9. Have you or someone else been injured as a result of your drinking?

No • Yes, but not in thepast year • Yes, during the pastyear

10. Has a relative or friend, doctor or other health worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down?

No • Yes, but not in thepast year • Yes, during the pastyear

Scoring the audit

Scores for each question range from 0 to 4,with the first response for each question (eg never) scoring 0, the second (eg less than monthly) scoring 1, the third (eg monthly) scoring 2, the fourth (eg weekly) scoring 3, and the last response (eg. daily or almost daily) scoring 4. For questions 9 and 10, which only have three responses, the scoring is 0, 2 and 4 (from left to right).

A score of 8 or more is associated with harmful or hazardous drinking, a score of 13 or more in women, and 15 or more in men, is likely to indicate alcohol dependence.

1Saunders JB, AaslandOG, Babor TF et al. Development of the alcohol use disorders identification test(AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption — II. Addiction 1993, 88: 791–803.

Alcohol and college athletes

guest — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:06:32 GMT

Drinking is “just a part of the culture” for many college athletes. The result is hung-over students who fail to train and compete at their best. To address the problem of alcohol abuse among student-athletes, many college campuses are educating students about social norms—the beliefs about what is normal and expected in social situations. For example, despite popular belief, “everyone” does not drink nor do “most students” get drunk all the time.

A 1999 survey at Southern Methodist University asked these four questions to students on a Friday about alcohol use on the previous night:

Did you drink last night?

Did you get drunk last night?

What percentage of SMU students do you think drank last night?

What percentage of SMU students do you think got drunk last night?

The answers showed major misperceptions about alcohol norms:

-Only 20% of students surveyed reported drinking the previous night, yet they believed that over half drank.

-Only 8% reported getting drunk, yet they believed at least one-third got drunk.

-Of students who drank, most reported consuming only a few drinks per week. Yet they believed most students were drinking 10 to 15 drinks per week.

-35% reported abstaining from alcohol, but very few believed that many of their peers were non-drinkers.

With ongoing social norm education, students will actually change their drinking practices. For example, a three-year social-norm education program targeted Division III athletes in a NY State college. It contributed to a 30% drop in both excessive alcohol consumption and the negative consequences of drinking. Among student-athletes with the highest exposure to the program, personal alcohol misuse dropped 50%. (1) Given that athletes are often role models, this change can have a positive impact on the entire campus and potentially (eventually) our entire sports society.

The bottom line: You can abstain from alcohol and not be the only one who does so!

Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD

References

1. Perkins H and Crais D. 2006. A Successful Social Norms Campaign to Rreduce Alcohol Misuse Among Collge Student-Athlets. J. Stud Alcohol 67:880-889.

http://smu.edu/healthcenter/alcoholeducation/adp_socialnorms.asp.

Blog Posts From Active Expert: Nancy Clark RD CSSD Tagged With binge_drinking

But we were just having some fun… (Rather, do you have a drinking problem?)

Alcohol and college athletes