FRIDAY, Sept.
12 (HealthDayNews) --
To many college students, the two most
blessed words in the English language are "cheap beer."
And when alcohol flows like water and can cost less,
students drink more heavily, says a new study. The
researchers put particular blame on marketing campaigns
promoting large quantities of beer -- kegs, "party balls,"
cheap pitchers and beers-by-the-dozen that are frequently
advertised in liquor stores and bars in college towns.
"It shouldn't be surprising, and yet we've all been
acting as if this isn't a factor in the binge drinking of
college students," says study leader Henry Weschler.
Most college drinking initiatives aim to change drinking
behavior and educate students about the perils of
alcoholism, says Weschler, director of College Alcohol
Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
These haven't been especially successful at reducing the
problem.
No wonder, he says, when beer is cheaper than soda or
bottled water, and getting drunk costs less than going to a
movie. Doing away with high-volume specials, or at the very
least making them more expensive, could take a significant
bite out of excessive drinking on campus -- for the obvious
reason that while college students may have deep thirsts
they have shallow pockets.
"Changing the alcohol environment surrounding colleges is
necessary in order to change the levels of drinking in
college students," Weschler says.
Previous work by Weschler's group found 44 percent of
college students "binge" drink -- consuming five or more
drinks at a single sitting (four drinks for women) within
the past two weeks. Almost a quarter do so more than once a
week. Binge drinking has been linked to poor grades,
physical and sexual aggression, and destructive behavior.
Underage drinkers consume nearly half of all alcohol
downed on college campuses, Weschler says.
In the latest study, appearing in the October issue of
the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the
researchers compared campus drinking levels with the cost of
beer in town. They looked at the drinking behavior of more
than 10,000 students attending 118 colleges.
The cheaper the beer and the larger the volume available,
the more students reported drinking. When retail outlets
sold discounted beer, the average number of drinks students
consumed rose. The same was true when stores sold 24-pack,
36-pack, kegs and party balls, a form of mini-keg holding
2.5 cases.
In college towns whose bars and restaurants had low
average beer prices, binge drinking rates were higher. Binge
drinking also spiked with weekend promotions -- events
sponsored by nearly three in four watering holes.
"It's not how many bars there are, the problems are in
these bars that have these drink specials," says Don
Zeigler, deputy director of the A Matter of Degree Program,
a drinking awareness initiative based at the American
Medical Association's Chicago headquarters.
Cutting back on the specials reduces alcohol-related
incidents, says Zeigler. At the University of Wisconsin in
Madison, for example, a recent voluntary ban on drink
specials led to fewer alcohol-related arrests and acts of
violence, he says.
"The [alcohol] industry usually says it's the problem of
the drinkers, that they should know when to say when, that
it's up to parents to teach their children about alcohol,"
Zeigler says. "This study is saying that there are
environmental policies that work; that what happens in
communities can have a tremendous impact on the drinking and
health of our kids."
Earlier this week, a government panel called for more
severe measures to cut underage drinking, and one of those
measures included significantly higher taxes.
In a second study, also reported in the prevention
journal, Weschler and his colleagues found college students
in states with more restrictive laws governing underage
drinking and drunken driving were less likely to drive after
consuming alcohol.
The study found that 30 percent of college students said
they'd driven after taking at least one drink, and 10
percent said they'd driven after having more than five. One
in four admitted riding with a driver who was drunk or
stoned on another substance.
The Beer Institute, which represents the beer industry,
could not be reached for comment.
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