title: Alcohol consumption associated with collegiate American football pre-game festivities.
abstract: Internationally, sporting events represent a specific context in which heavy episodic drinking is common. The current study assessed determinants of heavy episodic drinking among tailgaters (i.e., individuals engaging in pre-game social festivities) prior to American football games at two large universities. A total of 466 individuals at two universities completed a short interview and provided a breathalyzer sample to estimate breath alcohol content (BrAC) during the tailgating window (150min prior to and 10min after the start of the game). The plurality of participants, 48.5% at the southeastern university (School1) and 58.8% at the midwestern university (School2), engaged in heavy episodic drinking. Only 54 individuals (11.6%) from the combined sample at both universities abstained from alcohol (confirmed via BrAC). In total, 40.2% of participants at School1 and 31.9% at School2 produced breath samples over the legal limit for driving (i.e., BrAC=0.08 or higher). In site-specific regression analyses, younger ages, males, and non-students at School1, and younger ages and non-game attendance at School2 were associated with self-reported heavy episodic drinking and higher levels of estimated BrAC (p<0.05). Given the widespread participation in heavy episodic drinking among both students and non-students in this sample, public health interventions should be implemented both on- and off-campus to promote safety and to discourage heavy episodic drinking at American football games and other high-profile sporting events.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA. lmerlo@ufl.edu
authors.forename: Lisa J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Merlo
authors.forename: Brian K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Ahmedani
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Barondess
authors.forename: Kipling M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Bohnert
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Gold
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D001944:Breath Tests; D000431:Ethanol / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005538:Football / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol