NIAAA College Drinking Report-A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges

November 2007: Guiding the prevention of high-risk college drinking and its consequences remains a top priority for the NIAAA’s Task Force on College Drinking. Is the drinking problem on campus as pervasive as when the Task Force’s landmark report, A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges, was released in 2002. To answer this important question and update prevention and treatment professionals, policymakers, and legal experts on the current state of alcohol use on campus, the NIAAA has released an updated report, What Colleges Need to Know Now: An Update on College Drinking Research. This report summarizes recent project and research findings and provides updated statistics, analysis, and recommendations.

For more information, visit the NIAAA Web site to read the updated report.

On April 9, 2002, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) released a groundbreaking report, A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges. The report was prepared by the Task Force on College Drinking, a group of distinguished alcohol researchers, top higher education administrators, and college students. The report represents the first time these groups joined together formally to address this issue, outlining the dramatic effects of high-risk drinking on college and university campuses and presenting a series of recommendations for effective prevention. In addition to the report, NIAAA commissioned 23 original scientific papers that were designed to meet research needs identified by the panel.

In the NIAAA report, researchers outline the problem of high-risk drinking on U.S. college and university campuses. Rather than defining the issue by examining the level of drinking among college students, the Task Force focused on the detrimental and damaging consequences of high-risk drinking.* Task Force member Ralph Hingson and colleagues contributed some of the most prominent findings cited in the report. The findings, updated in 2005, suggest that 1,700 college students die annually from alcohol-related unintentional injuries. In addition, this research suggests that each year there are 599,000 unintentional injuries related to alcohol, 696,000 assaults, and 97,000 cases of sexual assault/date rape.

In reviewing the causes of high-risk drinking on campuses, the Task Force described the problem as a "culture of drinking" among college and university students. The belief among students that high-risk drinking is a "rite of passage" is supported by long-held customs and traditions, alcohol industry promotions and marketing, and lax policies and enforcement of laws. In order to address this culture of drinking, the Task Force recommends that campuses intervene on three different levels: (1) with the entire student body, (2) in the broader college and community environment, and (3) with the at-risk individual student. This work is best implemented in a comprehensive, coordinated fashion, working with a broad base of support from within the campus and the community.

While acknowledging a role for individual education and intervention efforts, this report is consistent with the Higher Education Center’s emphasis on a comprehensive environmental management approach to college alcohol prevention.

(1) To address the problem among the entire student body, the report recommends changing several factors in the environment that support high-risk drinking. The Task Force suggests the following as major environmental contributors to the problem:

(2) To address the college and surrounding community environment, the Task Force recommends collective prevention efforts between the campus and the community. The report suggests that these two groups are more likely to collaborate when college student drinking is recognized as a problem affecting not only the campus but also the community.

(3) To target the individual at-risk drinker, the report suggests offering screening and intervention services, such as brief motivational interviews during emergency room and health center visits. Other interventions include screening individual students to assess and compare their drinking habits with those of other students.

The report identifies several research-based strategies to address the problems on several different levels. Among those recommended are the following strategies:

In recommending these strategies, the report cites the critical need for presidential commitment and support to implement prevention programs relevant to the campus and community. Presidents are most influential in creating change on campus; their visible leadership makes prevention efforts more effective.

The Task Force also cites the need for student participation in developing sound and effective prevention policies.

In addition to the report, the Task Force developed the following:

For additional information and to read the reports, please visit www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov.

*In fact, the Task Force determined not to endorse the definition of "binge drinking" commonly used in several prominent research studies (five or more drinks in a row for men, four or more drinks for women) due to the many arguments against this method of defining high-risk drinking.

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