Vermont: Hospitalizations (Alcohol) Before Formal Starts

[exlurker]

Recently the driver of the bus transporting people to the Tri Delta formal became concerned about intoxication, called for help, and several ended up hospitalized.

Good work on the driver's part. Note that the excess alcohol intake came before arrival at the location of the formal. Pre-gaming, prepartying, whatever your campus calls it, can be dangerous.

http://www.vermontcynic.com/news/sor...2#.UqjzXicsbnc

[amIblue?]

I have heard collegians say something to the effect of "well, at least no one went to the hospital" as if it's an achievement and not an expectation.

[Xidelt]

Is it just me, or is alcohol poisoning among college students on the rise in the last few years? I know colleges have been cracking down on it by making their alcohol policies more stringent. But it seems like this wasn't as frequent an occurrence when I was in college (graduated in 2001). Sure, there was drinking and excess, but not to the extent I'm seeing now.

[DrPhil]

Just an increase in news coverage of binge drinking and alcohol poisoning.

The same as how news coverage of hazing and bullying doesn't mean hazing and bullying have increased over the past 20+ years. It can change in form and venue but there's no evidence of an increase in prevalence and incident.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Just an increase in news coverage of binge drinking and alcohol poisoning.

The same as how news coverage of hazing and bullying doesn't mean hazing and bullying have increased over the past 20+ years. It can change in form and venue but there's no evidence of an increase in prevalence and incident.

Eh, I don't know...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/binge-drinking-on-the-rise/

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=7846733

http://www.onenewsnow.com/culture/20...se-among-teens

http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/...merican-women/

[HQWest]

Binge drinking is definitely up among women. It seems to be more common for kids to have more drinking parties in high school - maybe access is easier?

It also seems to be harder to have a drink at a function and so girls seem to feel the need to drink a whole bunch in the hopes of keeping their buzz till the party which is what leads to incidents like this.

We did have problems 20 years ago when we would show up for a party and another chapter had the ballroom across the hall. They would all be sick in the bathroom so their dates would come over to our party. So if you cant have fun without getting smashed - you probably need to at least work on your conversationskills

[DrPhil]

I just realized that poster said "alcohol poisoning" and not "binge drinking". There is more consistent and reliable data of an increase in alcohol poisoning since 2001 than there is of an increase in binge drinking since 2001. Pardon me for the misread.

[AOII Angel]

Changing the drinking age to 21 was problematic. Binge drinking is the current style if drinking every time people go out (I won't say college students because it persists beyond those years.) I don't think older people understand that phenomenon, especially women, who would have one or two drinks and call it quits. The idea of having 6-7 drinks prior to going out is something that baffles the established medical field who were able to drink legally in college, though the younger members of the field know what's going on because we have been doing almost the same thing since college. In my experience, the severity of binge drinking and use of drugs like Xanax while drinking significantly increased in Louisiana in the two to three years after the law changed from 18 to 21 in 1995.

[AGDee]

When I compare (anecdotal, admittedly) drinking trends among collegians today and in the mid-80s, I've observed a few trends. Back then, beer is what was freely available and what most college students drank most of the time. When we drank hard liquor, other than occasional tequila shots, I think the onslaught of good flavored hard liquors - vodka in particular- means people (especially women) are drinking differently. When we did drink hard liquor, it tended to be mixed with other things- fuzzy navels, vodka and cranberry, etc.

And the drinking age was 21 here in Michigan when I was in college, so that doesn't seem to be a factor in my personal observations.

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by HQWest

Binge drinking is definitely up among women. It seems to be more common for kids to have more drinking parties in high school - maybe access is easier?

It also seems to be harder to have a drink at a function and so girls seem to feel the need to drink a whole bunch in the hopes of keeping their buzz till the party which is what leads to incidents like this.

This and this. Drinking in high school is super common, at least where I live. Everyone has an older brother or sister or friend who can get them alcohol. School dances were full of drunk people at my high school, some of whom ended up getting sent to the hospital for alcohol related problems. The school ended having to run random breathalyzer checks before letting kids into prom. Don't know if that's par for the course at other high schools though.

And it is much harder to get a drink at a function if you're not 21. To be able to buy drinks you have to submit your age to the date list and then get a wristband once on the outside of the event and again on the inside after showing a member of Exec your ID both times. A lot of girls have realized that they won't be able to buy alcohol when they get to the event so they pregame a lot instead to make up for it.

[DrPhil]

ASTalumna06, I saw that the first time.

Research and policy organizations worth their salt assess and critique extant research and data and that includes CDC data (CDC researchers and independent researchers always explain their methodology). One thing we know is there is more reliable data (police data and hospital data) on alcohol poisoning than there is for binge drinking. Most binge drinking research uses self-report data, self-reports have limitations, and most binge drinking does not result in alcohol poisoning or a 911 call.

(I mistakenly lumped binged drinking and alcohol poisoning together in my first post when I was really talking about binge drinking. The poster I was responding to was initially talking about alcohol poisoning.)

All of this matters because school policies and city-state policies on alcohol consumption can either go based on data or go based on theory of "alcohol is bad....mmmmkay?!" The former is usually more successful than the latter. The former requires assessing the data, evaluating control factors, comparing across years and other contexts, and also not assuming that the implementation of a policy is the direct cause of a decrease in binge drinking and/or alcohol poisoning. For example, I read somewhere that binge drinking can decrease with an increase in the state tax and a shift in alcohol advertising. States can make those changes and be hopeful but they need not assume those changes will result in a decline in binge drinking.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

ASTalumna06, I saw that the first time.

Ahhh, sorry! I deleted it. Sometimes when I push the back button on my phone, it re-submits the same info. Oops!