High prevalence, persistent hazardous drinking among New Zealand tertiary students.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of hazardous drinking and alcohol-related negative consequences in New Zealand tertiary students, and to identify predictors of hazardous drinking across a 6-month period.


METHODS
A total of 1480 tertiary students living in halls of residence was surveyed at the start of the academic year, and a subsample of 967 students was followed up 6 months later. Questionnaire items included quantity and frequency of drinking, alcohol-related problems, use of other substances, and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Drinking at follow-up was modelled using demographic characteristics, mental well-being, other substance use, alcohol-related problems, and hall drinking norms, measured at baseline.


RESULTS
Among drinkers, mean (+/- SD) weekly consumption was 243 +/- 241 and 135 +/- 157 g of ethanol for males and females respectively. The majority of male (60.0%) and female (58.2%) drinkers typically consumed more than national safe drinking guidelines. Mean (+/- SD) AUDIT scores were 10.9 +/- 7.6 for males and 7.6 +/- 5.9 for females. After controlling for AUDIT scores at baseline, increased AUDIT scores at follow-up were higher with lower age, Maori ethnicity, smoking, cannabis use, high levels of alcohol-related negative consequences, and higher levels of drinking in the student's hall of residence.


CONCLUSIONS
Hazardous drinking is widespread and persistent among students living in the halls of residence. There is a need for university alcohol policies and intervention approaches among New Zealand tertiary students.
Kypri
Kypros
K
Injury Prevention Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago Medical School, P. O. Box 913, Dunedin.
Langley
John D
JD
McGee
Rob
R
Saunders
John B
JB
Williams
Sheila
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data