пятница, 27 мая 2011 г.

Students who get drunk weekly have higher risk of injuries

College students who get drunk at least once a week are significantly more likely to be hurt or injured than other
student drinkers, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.


The research suggests that a simple screening question - "In a typical week, how many days do you get drunk?" - may help
identify at-risk students.


"Each year approximately 1,700 college students die from alcohol-related injuries," said Mary Claire O'Brien, M.D., assistant
professor of emergency medicine and public health sciences at Wake Forest's School of Medicine, which is part of Wake Forest
University Baptist Medical Center. "Our goal was to develop a simple tool to tell which student drinkers are at highest risk
of getting hurt, as a result of their own drinking and the drinking of others."


The results, part of an ongoing, five-year research project to develop effective strategies for reducing problem drinking on
college campuses, were reported today at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine in New York City.



Wake Forest researchers found that students who got drunk at least once weekly were three times more likely to be hurt or
injured due to their own drinking than student drinkers who do not report getting drunk at least once a week. They were twice
as likely to fall from a height and need medical care, and 75 percent more likely to be sexually victimized. Getting drunk
was defined as being unsteady, dizzy or sick to your stomach.


"When you drink, you're also at risk because of other people's drinking," O'Brien said.


For example, students who got drunk at least once weekly were three times more likely to be in an automobile accident caused
by someone else's drinking and twice as likely to be taken advantage of sexually by someone who was drinking.


O'Brien's goal was to identify a one-question screening tool that could be used in busy hospital emergency departments. She
said the Wake Forest "single question" was designed specifically for college students.


"The emergency department presents a teachable moment," she said. "Research has shown that a brief intervention, such as
simple advice, can change drinking patterns."


O'Brien said that current screening tools define problem drinking as having four or five drinks in a row.


"In my experience, patients lie about how much they drink, and screening tests based on quantity don't account for
differences in weight, gender, alcohol tolerance, body metabolism, medications and other variables," she said. "What it takes
to make someone drunk varies from individual to individual."


The overall goal of the $3.2 million Study to Prevent Alcohol-Related Consequences (SPARC) is to reduce the availability of
alcohol to students and to help change campus cultures that promote drinking. The study uses such strategies as restricting
alcohol at campus events, increasing enforcement, constraining marketing and educating alcohol sellers and servers,
landlords, students and parents.















Ten North Carolina universities are participating in the Wake Forest study. Students are surveyed once a year on their
alcohol consumption, availability of alcohol, attitudes and perceptions, and consequences experienced from drinking.
Strategies to reduce problem drinking are being implemented at half of the campuses, with emphasis on forming
campus-community coalitions that address issues specific to each school. The web-based student surveys are one of several
measures of the project's effectiveness.


The multidisciplinary study team is led by Robert H. DuRant, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and public health sciences at
Wake Forest Baptist. The research is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).


O'Brien's research is based on the first student web survey (fall 2003), which found that 63 percent of students under age 21
drink and that 20 percent of the drinkers usually have seven or more drinks. More than half (54 percent) of the drinkers said
they get drunk at least weekly.


According to the NIAAA, about four out of five students drink and about half of the drinkers engage in heaving episodic
consumption. It is estimated that that 97,000 students each year are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape,
that almost a third (31 percent) of college students meet the criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and that 2.8 million
college students drove under the influence of alcohol last year.


The 10 universities involved in the study are Appalachian State, Duke, High Point, Western Carolina and the Asheville, Chapel
Hill, Charlotte, Wilmington and Pembroke campuses of the University of North Carolina.


Other members of the SPARC research team are Barbara Alvarez-Martin, M.P.H., Heather Champion, Ph.D., Gail Cohen, M.D., Ralph
B. D'Agostino Jr., Ph.D., Sheryl Hulme, Thomas McCoy, M.S., Cindy Miller, A.A.S., Ananda Mitra, Ph.D., Morrow Omli, M.A. Ed.,
Scott Rhodes, Ph.D., Adrienne Robbins, B.A., Lisa Sobieski, B.A., Hoa Teuschlser, B.S., Leslie Tuttle, Kim Wagoner, M.S., and
Mark Wolfson, Ph.D, all from Wake Forest.


Media Contacts: Karen Richardson, krchrdsnwfubmc; Shannon Koontz, shkoontzwfubmc; at 336-716-4587


About Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center: Wake Forest Baptist is an academic health system comprised of North
Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university's School of Medicine. The
system comprises 1,282 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of
"America's Best Hospitals" by U.S. News & World Report.


Contact: Karen Richardson

krchrdsnwfubmc

336-716-4453

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center

wfubmc

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