Sixty-six percent of UW-Madison students binge drink, according to the annual Harvard School of Public Health survey. Up from 62 percent in 2000, the 2001 statistics also show more negative effects of alcohol consumption among students, including negative secondary effects, like property damage or unwanted sexual advances, from others’ drinking.

Although only slight percentage changes are shown, the 2001 statistics follow with the recent trend of a polarization of drinking styles on campuses across the country. Of 400 participants, 10.6 percent abstain from alcohol consumption, compared to 10.2 percent in 2000.

Conducted by Henry Wechsler and the Harvard School of Public Health, the 2001 College Alcohol Study appears in the latest issue of the Journal of American College Health. It defines binge drinking as five or more drinks in a row for men and four or more drinks in a row for women. UW has participated in the Harvard research since its start in 1993.

At universities around the country, “positive changes” from college administration regarding alcohol policy and more frequent offering of substance-free housing, binge-drinking rates for 2001 are remarkably similar (44 percent) to previous survey years. Although the statistics varied only slightly from 1993, 1997 and 1999, underage students attending colleges in states with stricter drinking laws were less likely to binge drink.

“The drinking style on campus is still one of excess,” Henry Wechsler, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study and director of College Alcohol Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health said. “If you are a traditional college student and you drink, the odds are seven in ten that you are a binge drinker.” A traditional college student is defined as one between the ages of 18 and 23 who does not live with his or her parents.

The study also found that the percentage of students who experienced negative effects due to their own drinking increased, generally, compared to last year’s data. The effects include hangovers, missed classes, unplanned sexual activities, damaged property and sustained injuries.

The 2001 numbers for UW-Madison show that 20.2 percent of respondents have been injured; 37.3 percent have missed a class; and 29.5 percent engaged in unplanned sexual activity due to drinking.

The percentage of students experiencing problems due to other students’ drinking — negative secondary effects — also generally increased. Among them, 26.3 percent experienced instances of property damage, 69 percent had studying and/or sleep interrupted and 35 percent experienced an unwanted sexual advance.

The Harvard study findings are analyzed and used by UW’s RWJ Project, a coalition against high-risk drinking funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the American Medical Association. The program is in the process of applying for an additional four years of funding.

Susan Crowley, University Health Services director of prevention services and director of the project, said the numbers did not surprise her but show little progress on decreasing binge drinking on Madison’s Isthmus.

“These numbers show why we need to continue working,” she said. “There’s no magic bullet: an effective response will include education, a variety of options instead of drinking, and policy change.”

Despite flat national trends in overall binge drinking, a rise in the number of binge drinkers at all women’s schools between 1993 and 2001 increased 31 percent, from about 24 to 32 percent. Specifically, there has been a 20 percent decrease in abstainers at all-women colleges, while the rate of abstention increased by 11 percent (from about 17 percent to 19 percent) nationally among women at co-educational colleges.

A summary of other changes in UW student patterns of alcohol use follows. Some of the changes reported may not be statistically significant due to percent error and the number of participants.

Abstainers: 2000, 10.2 percent; 2001, 10.6 percent
Drank, but did not binge: 2000, 27.8 percent; 2001, 23 percent.
Occasional binge drinker (one to two times in the two weeks prior to the survey): 2000, 25.8 percent; 2001, 29.1 percent.
Frequent binge drinker (three or more times in the two weeks prior to the survey): 2000, 36.2 percent; 2001, 37.3 percent.
Percentage that binged: 2000, 62 percent; 2001, 66 percent.