Study Finds Binge Drinking Declining Among College Kids

El Taco7 years ago

I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed. Day in and day out, I write articles for you good men and women discussing the joys of blacking out, talking shit to cops, picking up ladies of the night, and making bad decisions, and then I wake up to this horrific news today: Binge drinking declining among college student.

A new study published in The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs says binge drinking, having four or more drinks for women or five or more drinks for men in two hours, has fallen by roughly seven percent.

From HealthDay:

Between 1999 and 2005, binge drinking among college students jumped from 37 percent to 45 percent. But that trend reversed itself after 2005, landing back at 37 percent by 2014, according to the analysis from the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Meanwhile, binge drinking rates among those who were not enrolled in college increased from 36 percent to 40 percent between 1999 and 2014.

“For many years, there was an increase in the percentage of college students in national surveys who binged,” said study first author Ralph Hingson, director of the division of epidemiology and prevention research at NIAAA. “We saw that up until 2005.

“But since then, the percentages have gone down,” he noted. “Same thing for driving under the influence of alcohol and our estimates of alcohol-related unintentional injuries.

Why is 2014 the most recent year? Fuck if I know. I could personally conduct this survey in about 20 minutes and get vastly different results. However, I’m guessing these super smart science people had a good reason for it.

The news comes with a mixed bag of results. The study says driving under the influence of alcohol is down, which is great, but alcohol-related unintentional injuries are also down. If alcohol-related injuries keep declining at this rate then this site will go to shit.

I don’t know. I just wish I had raised you guys better..

[via HealthDay]