High-risk versus low-risk football game weekends: differences in problem drinking and alcohol-related consequences on college campuses in the United States.
Collegiate football games provide multiple social opportunities for alcohol use by students over the course of the weekend. The goal of this study was to examine alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences on football game weekends to determine differences based on characteristics of the game.


METHODS
A random sample of students from two large, public universities in the United States completed a survey on the Sunday-Friday following a high-risk weekend (HRW, important, home game) and low-risk weekend (LRW, no home game or game of importance) (N = 3,238 total). The survey measured the number of days students drank (0-3) and got drunk (0-3) over the weekend and whether 1+ consequences were experienced due to one's own drinking (yes/no) and due to others' drinking (yes/no).


RESULTS
Ordinal logistic regression analyses revealed greater odds of drinking alcohol (OR = 1.70, CI = 1.46-1.97) and getting drunk (OR = 1.49, CI = 1.27-1.76) on HRW versus LRW. Logistic regression analyses revealed greater odds of experiencing 1+ consequences as a result of one's own drinking (OR = 1.38, CI = 1.16-1.63) and experiencing 1+ consequences as a result of others' drinking (OR = 1.52, CI = 1.30-1.78) on HRW versus LRW.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that additional prevention efforts aimed at reducing risky drinking are needed over HRW and have implications for campus administrators, law enforcement, and substance abuse program coordinators.
Champion
Heather
H
Research, Innovation, and Product Development, Center for Creative Leadership, One Leadership Place, PO Box 26300, Greensboro, North Carolina 27438, USA. championh@ccl.org
Blocker
Jill N
JN
Buettner
Cynthia K
CK
Martin
Barbara A
BA
Parries
Maria
M
Mccoy
Thomas P
TP
Mitra
Ananda
A
Andrews
David W
DW
Rhodes
Scott D
SD
D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D005538:Football; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult