Prevalence of alcohol drinking and alcohol related problems in freshmen college students

VERA, BELÉN DEL VALLE; PAUTASSI R.M.; PILATTI A

Valencia

Congreso; 15th Congress of the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ESBRA); 2015

European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ESBRA)

It is important to analyze alcohol use behaviors during the first year ofcollege. The study examined the prevalence of alcohol consumptionand alcohol-related problems in 4498 (57.8% female) freshmen(18-25 years old; mean age = 19.06 ±1.64), enrolled at the NationalUniversity of Córdoba, Argentina. Results revealed that 96% drankalcohol at least once in their lifetime, 90.9% during last year,70.3% during last month and 38.5% during last week. The majority(64.9%) reported heavy episodic drinking (≥4/5 drinks in a singledrinking session) and 59.6% reported binge drinking (≥4/5 drinksin a two-hour drinking session). The majority (66.3%) drank untildrunkenness at least once in their lifetime. A latent class analysis identified 5 classes of substance use. Participants in Class 1 [HeavyDrinkers/No Illegal Substance Use (ISU), N = 2183] had high probabilities of binge drinking and near zero probabilities of ISU. Participants in Class 2 (Moderate-Drinkers with Heavy Drinking Episodes,N = 729) had high probabilities of having heavy drinking episodes andnear zero chance of ISU. Participants in Class 3 (Moderate-Drinkerswithout Heavy Drinking Episodes, N = 670) had near zero probabilities of having heavy drinking episodes and ISU. Participants in Class 4(Heavy-Drinkers with Substance Use, N = 441) had high probabilitiesof heavy drinking and ISU. Participants in Class 5 (Abstainers, N =407) had near zero chance of drinking alcohol or ISU. Classes differedin their prevalence of alcohol-related problems: classes with heavier alcohol use exhibit greater negative consequences of alcohol drinking.The results reflect the high prevalence of hazardous alcohol consumption patterns in college freshmen.