Study: Combatting College Drinking – Involve Community
New study finds colleges can reduce excessive drinking and intoxication at off-campus parties, bars and restaurants with a comprehensive prevention program that includes the surrounding community.
Robert Saltz, Ph.D., a Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute of Research and Evaluation is the lead researcher on the Safer California University Program, a multi-campus alcohol prevention study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
The Safer California University Program paired 14 public universities based on their drinking levels assessed from survey results of 500 students at each university. During the first phase, half the schools implemented the interventions while the other half of the schools served as the control group.
The first phase of the study, spanning over five years, found significant reductions in the incidence and likelihood of intoxication at off-campus parties and bars/restaurants at universities implementing the interventions, compared with the control universities.
The second phase of the study, which ended in 2013, included the seven schools that had not implemented the prevention program in the first phase, explained Dr. Saltz in an August 5th Join Together article. “We found the second group of schools, once they implemented the program, moderately reduced the level of intoxication at off-campus parties and bars/restaurants, to a level similar to the first group,” Dr. Saltz said.
Prevention interventions to address college drinking in the study included enforcing laws against selling alcohol to minors, driving-under-the-influence checkpoints, nuisance party enforcement operations, asking campus police to cite hosts of parties when they respond to complaints of loud parties, and use of campus and local media to increase the visibility of these strategies.
Colleges that want to find out more about the intervention program can use the Safer Universities Program free toolkit, created through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and NIAAA.
Study: Combatting College Drinking – Involve Community
New study finds colleges can reduce excessive drinking and intoxication at off-campus parties, bars and restaurants with a comprehensive prevention program that includes the surrounding community.
Robert Saltz, Ph.D., a Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute of Research and Evaluation is the lead researcher on the Safer California University Program, a multi-campus alcohol prevention study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
The Safer California University Program paired 14 public universities based on their drinking levels assessed from survey results of 500 students at each university. During the first phase, half the schools implemented the interventions while the other half of the schools served as the control group.
The first phase of the study, spanning over five years, found significant reductions in the incidence and likelihood of intoxication at off-campus parties and bars/restaurants at universities implementing the interventions, compared with the control universities.
The second phase of the study, which ended in 2013, included the seven schools that had not implemented the prevention program in the first phase, explained Dr. Saltz in an August 5th Join Together article. “We found the second group of schools, once they implemented the program, moderately reduced the level of intoxication at off-campus parties and bars/restaurants, to a level similar to the first group,” Dr. Saltz said.
Prevention interventions to address college drinking in the study included enforcing laws against selling alcohol to minors, driving-under-the-influence checkpoints, nuisance party enforcement operations, asking campus police to cite hosts of parties when they respond to complaints of loud parties, and use of campus and local media to increase the visibility of these strategies.
Colleges that want to find out more about the intervention program can use the Safer Universities Program free toolkit, created through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and NIAAA.