All Posts Tagged With: "alcohol"
Date rape drug shows up in Nanaimo, B.C.
Student may have been sexually assaulted and drugged
Photo by Robert S. Donovan on Flickr
Vancouver Island University is warning students via Twitter to guard their drinks. A woman who was sexually assaulted in Nanaimo recently may have been given the date-rape drug GHB.
Another young woman says her doctor confirmed she was given the drug in October. CTV Vancouver Island reports that the woman was found by a friend in a parkade around 3 a.m. after attending a nightclub. She had no recollection of the evening, but her friend says a stranger had shared her drink earlier that night.
V.I.U. has been using custom drink coasters to warn students about how easy it is for people to slip odourless and colourless GHB into their drinks, reports Canada.com.
High demand for alcohol-free and quiet floors
Vindication for residence management at Alberta
Photo by mathplourde on Flickr
There was high demand for alcohol-free and quiet floors at a University of Alberta residence that decided to offer them for the first time this year. That result seems to vindicate residence management, whose consultation process was criticized last year by the Lister Hall Student’s Association, reports The Gateway.
Among applicants to Lister Hall, 24 per cent requested an alcohol-free floor and 46 per cent requested a quiet floor. That’s similar to what Residence Services predicted using their consultation process, which included a survey that found 51 per cent of the 302 residents surveyed last year would opt for a quiet floor and 19 per cent would live on an alcohol-free floor. The process began after residence management noticed a great number of people were leaving Lister in the first semester and suspected it might be due to rowdy weekend nights. Then-LHSA-President Dustin Edwards suggested there were likely other reasons for the exodus.
Continue reading High demand for alcohol-free and quiet floors
Teens doing dangerous things in cars
Startling findings in annual drug use report
Photo by eduard_orbitron on Flickr
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse has released their annual report, which brings together surveys of drug use among teens from the various provinces. What’s most startling is the risky behaviours Grade 12 students are engaging in before driving. Depending on the province:
—up to 20 per cent report driving within an hour of having two or more drinks
—up to 38 per cent report being a passenger with a driver who was drinking
—up to 20 per cent report being a passenger with a driver who had “too much to drink”
—up to 21 per cent report driving within an hour of using cannabis
Clearly young people need to plan safer rides home.
There were also interesting, if less shocking, findings about teen drug and alcohol use in general. The study looked at students in grades seven, nine, 10 and 12 and found that the amount of teens who had drank alcohol at least once in their lifetimes ranged from 52 per cent of Albertan teens to 70 per cent of Newfoundland teens. Those figures climb as high as 90 per cent by twelfth grade.
Remove drunken posts. Change privacy setting.
What researchers are doing on Facebook
Photo by LifeSupercharger on Flickr
Students who post on Facebook about “getting drunk” or “blacking out” or “getting wasted” might want to change their privacy settings.
U.S. researchers have determined that if you post about getting wasted you’re at a higher risk for alcohol abuse. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which funded the study, suggests schools consider creeping students’ public profiles to “identify and intervene with college students who are at risk for alcohol use problems,” said director Kenneth Warren.
Researchers looked at the public Facebook profiles of more than 300 undergraduate students and invited the students to use an online version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, or AUDIT, a screening tool that clinicians use to measure problem drinking. “We found that underage college students who referenced dangerous drinking habits, such as intoxication or blacking out, were more likely to have AUDIT scores that indicate problem drinking or alcohol-related injury,” said Dr. Megan Moreno, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An AUDIT score of 8 or higher means the person is at risk of a problem drinking. Underage students who referenced “being drunk” or “getting wasted” in the study had audit scores of 9.5 on average. Students who had no references to alcohol scored 4.7 on average. In other words, the tool could work.
But what about protecting students’ privacy from creeping admins? Someone should study that too.
21+ rules may violate human rights code
Adults of legal age have a right to be served: expert
Photo by Yoshimai on Flickr
Young adults, especially men, are being barred from entering drinking establishments in Canada based solely on their age — and these are men who are have reached the provincially-mandated minimum age for drinking. Many clubs are restricting entry to those over the age of 21. Women often get a free pass if they’re of legal age.
But the practice may be a Human Rights Code violation, Raj Anand, former commissioner of Ontario’s Human Rights Commission told The Globe and Mail. “There are certain circumstances in which the stereotype of irresponsibility that attaches to young, unmarried men is sanctioned by law –– see their car insurance rates –– but visiting a bar or nightclub is not one of them. In my view, exclusion of an adult of drinking age is a violation of the Human Rights Code.”
Club owners and event planners defend the practice, suggesting that younger men are more likely to arrive drunk and spend less money.
But the rules are the rules. So young men, the next time a bouncer looks at your ID and tells you scram, just point out that it’s a human rights code violation. That ought to get you in, right?
Who should teach teenagers about drinking?
Universities and parents have a duty to educate
Photo by Dave Chidley/CP
From the editors of Maclean’s
Some predictions can be made with absolute certainty. The tides will shift. The sun will rise. And young university students will drink to excess.
From Tom Brown’s Schooldays to Animal House, exuberant drinking by underage students has long been a part of the experience of going away to school. Realistically, there is little society can do to change this fact of life. But what can we all do to cut down on the harm it may cause?
Last week, Canada’s university community was shocked by an orientation-week death at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S. A first-year student from Calgary, just 19 years old, was found unconscious in a basement dorm room at the school suffering from severe alcohol poisoning. He later died in hospital. Fellow students told reporters he’d been playing a competitive drinking game called “flip cup” and had consumed an estimated 40 ounces of alcohol during the night.
This follows two student deaths at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., last year that the provincial coroner’s office attributed, in part, to a “culture of drinking on campus.” Both men, aged 18 and 19, fell to their deaths after drinking, one from a residence window, the other from the roof of a library.
The accidental death of a son or daughter is an unimaginable tragedy. But the death of a freshman student during their first few weeks away from home seems particularly difficult for any mother or father. While a university can never become a surrogate parent, it is nonetheless expected that campus residences will be a sufficiently safe place for teenaged students to live as they make their final strides to adulthood.
The recent deaths thus raise two difficult questions: who bears responsibility for instructing teenagers in the risks of alcohol abuse; and how should schools deal with students’ inevitable desire to party.
The obvious place to begin educating about alcohol is at home, as it is with most other topics. Someone needs to let every teenager know that drinking 40 ounces of alcohol in one night is reckless and dangerous behaviour, and parents are the obvious candidates. A full and frank discussion on drinking and its consequences is as necessary before heading off to school as packing sufficient underwear and pens.
In fact, many parents believe monitored underage drinking at home is the best way to teach teens about learning your limits. Depending on the situation and teen involved, this may make considerable sense, and be entirely legal. Of course there are serious risks to this sort of parental permissiveness as well. This month, an Orillia, Ont., mother found herself facing criminal charges in New York for providing alcohol to her 14-year-old son. After being served a few beers by his mother while camping, he wandered off at night and drowned.
As for universities, most now recognize an important obligation to protect the youngest students from their wildest instincts, at least during those first few days away from home. The initial week of school was once a time of unremitting partying. Today many universities have banned alcohol entirely from campus during this time. Most have also changed the name from frosh week to orientation week to make this distinction clear.
Going further, some forward-thinking universities have declared first-year residences to be dry throughout orientation week. The University of Guelph has had such a policy in place for the past two years. Where kids once showed up at university residence with a case of beer among their luggage, Brenda Whiteside, assistant vice-president for student affairs at Guelph, says those days are now over. The new week-long regime “sends a strong message about creating a new culture in our residences,” she says. During orientation week at Acadia, on-campus activities were alcohol-free, but the residences were not, as the flip cup games attest.
It seems reasonable that every Canadian university should set an appropriate tone for the school year by eliminating alcohol from first-year residences during orientation week. And some schools should be encouraged to experiment with the more drastic step of banning alcohol entirely from all first-year residences—particularly given that a large number of those students will be underage. This might even become a marketing advantage, at least from the perspective of nervous parents.
University students will drink, and it is naive to ignore this fact. But parents and universities—and the students themselves, who have an equal responsibility to look out for one another—must find ways to make our campuses safer, regardless of life’s inevitabilities.
Queen’s to ban alcohol during Frosh Week
Most first-year students can’t legally drink
Queen’s University, the site of at least two alcohol-related deaths last year, will ban alcohol entirely from residences during Frosh Week — even for those who have reached the legal drinking age, reports the Queen’s Journal.
University officials told the Journal that 92 per cent of first-year students in residence are under the legal drinking age anyway.
The Alcohol Working Group came up with the idea, stating the ban would “clearly signal Queen’s commitment to reducing alcohol-related harm, particularly at a critical transitional time when the risk of alcohol misuse among 1st year students has been known to be high (with a tragic alcohol-related accidental death of one resident during Orientation week in 2010).”
Coroner Roger Skinner recommended a review of campus alcohol policies after determining that the 2010 deaths of Cameron Bruce, who fell out of a window on the sixth-floor of a residence, and Habib Khan, who died after falling through a skylight, were alcohol-related.
Students caught with alcohol during Frosh Week will will be given “educational assignments” and watch their alcohol be poured out.
The normal rules that allow drinking among those of legal age will return Sept. 11.
Graduate student residences will not face the new rule.
Want to get paid to drink?
It’s all in the name of research
Photo courtesy of Kirti Poddar on Flickr
Students at Arizona State University are getting paid to drink — $60 per night.
Will Corbin, an Arizona State University professor researches the effects of alcohol by getting students drunk. “‘The biggest thing I get is, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he told azcentral.com. “You have a bar, and you give people alcohol as part of your research.’
That’s right. He has a bar in the psychology building where carefully screened students are plied with cocktails by research assistants each night at 5 p.m. They’re given three drinks in the first half hour. Then they’re put through a battery of tests related to memory or potentially risky behviour.
After they’ve sobered up, they’re allowed to leave. That typically happens around 9 p.m. — early enough to make it to a real bar.
Two new things you should know about drinking
Study shows brain damage, but that’s not all
Another study suggests that binge drinking damages the brain. But this time, there’s reason to be hopeful too.
Tim McQueeny, a psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati (UC), looked at 29 high-resolution brain scans from students aged 18 to 25. Those who reported regularly consuming more than four to five drinks at a time had more thinning of the pre-frontal cortex, which is the area where executive decisions are made. Executive decisions include paying attention and keeping control of emotions — things that become difficult when intoxicated.
“Alcohol might be neurotoxic to the neuron cells, or, since the brain is developing in one’s 20s, it could be interacting with developmental factors and possibly altering the ways in which the brain is still growing,” warns McQueeny.
However, his adviser and co-author Krista Lisdahl Medina also had some hopeful news. Their preliminary data also show that grey matter appears to be fine in those who were once binge drinkers, but who have since abstained. That, she says, warrants further study.
The prevalence of binge drinking on North American campuses is undeniable. In the most recent National College Health Assessment, which surveyed 30,000 students, nearly one in three reported that they consumed at least five standard drinks the last time they went to a party or socialized. Five per cent of them reported having more than 11 drinks the last time they socialized.
University returns to all-male and all-female dorms
President says single-sex residences will reduce binge drinking and sex
Photo courtesy of adpowers on Flickr
The president of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. says his school will return to all-male and all-female dormitories in September. Here’s his reasoning. “The two most serious ethical challenges college students face are binge drinking and the culture of hooking up,” wrote John Garvey in The Wall Street Journal Monday. “Here is one simple step colleges can take to reduce both binge drinking and hooking up: Go back to single-sex residences,” he writes.
His only evidence appears to be a study by Christopher Kaczor of Loyola Marymount University that shows students in co-ed dorms report binge drinking more than twice as often as students in single-sex housing, and that students in co-ed housing are significantly more likely to have had a sexual partner in the past year. What the article doesn’t mention is whether Kaczor’s study controlled for the fact that many students who live in single-sex dorms have chosen to live there precisely because they wish to avoid alcohol and sex.
Cambridge hires students to babysit drunk peers
Program to be funded through fines paid by students who drink too much
St. John’s College at the University of Cambridge is hiring students to look after their peers who have had too much to drink during end of year celebrations. The College, which is celebrating its 500th anniversary this year, is hiring the “volunteer carers” in anticipation of its annual May Ball. The volunteers are being trained by the school nurse and will be paid up to £100 an evening. When a student appears excessively intoxicated, College staff will notify the carers who will come look after them. “The risk of harm to them in that state is serious enough to make the College put clear procedures in place to ensure that they are properly cared for,” a spokesman for St. John’s said. The program will be funded through fines levied against students requiring care.
Energy drinks may double alcohol consumption
Study suggests cause may be social or physiological factors
According to several Dalhousie researchers, combining caffeinated energy drinks and alcohol could be a major health hazard. The study, which was published in Drug and Alcohol Review, showed that energy drink consumption leads to twice the amount of alcohol consumption.
Dr. Sean Barrett, associate professor of psychology and psychiatry at Dalhousie and one of the researchers involved in the study, says that further research must be conducted to determine exactly why energy drinks increase alcohol consumption. He suggests that caffeine or an amino acid called taurine might be culprits.
“But what we do know that when alcohol is used together with these energy drinks, people say they feel more sober but they still tend to perform poorly on various neurocognitive tasks. They’re still physically intoxicated, they just feel like they aren’t,” said Dr. Barrett in an interview with Dal News.
Whether the cause is social behavior or dopamine release from the brain, the article points out that the increased alcohol intake raises the risk of alcohol poisoning and risk-taking behaviours.
-Photo courtesy of Tambako the Jaguar
All you can drink? Not so fast
Concordia cracks down on ‘illegal’ student union parties
Concordia University has cracked down on “all you can drink” bi-monthly parties hosted by the students’ union. The cultural nights, as they are known, began last year and feature food and drink from a different culture each time. Students paid a flat rate of five dollars and were given access to as much alcohol as they wanted.
When advertising for this past Wednesday’ s culture night, the administration objected to the promotion of “all you can drink.” A spokesperson for the university told campus papers, the Link and the Concordian, that such an event would actually be illegal under Quebec liquor laws. After consulting with university security, several measures will be taken to slow alcohol consumption and control student drunkeness at the popular events.
Fewer bartenders will be working, and breaks will be taken where alchohol is not served. Security will be conducting hourly patrols and students will have to wear bracelets that track how many drinks they’ve had.
Young teens who don’t like school are more likely to drink
The more young people drink, the more they have sex, study shows
In a study of 3,641 students aged 11 to 14, British researchers found that those drinking once a week were 10 times more likely to have sex, and also found links between general unhappiness and alcohol use, the BBC reports. Children who don’t like school are twice as likely to drink, and 2.5 times more likely to engage in sexual activity (including kissing, touching and sex), they said. What’s more, those with an unhappy home life, and unable to talk to their parents, were also more likely to drink.
Student challenges alcohol ban for young drivers
Proving the law is ‘unconstitutional’ may not be so easy
Twenty-year-old University of Western Ontario student Kevin Wiener has challenged Ontario’s controversial new law, which prohibits drivers under 22 from consuming any alcohol before getting behind the wheel.
Wiener filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, telling the Toronto Star, “As a young person, I don’t feel it’s fair for the government (to do this).”
“The Charter (of Rights and Freedoms) prohibits discrimination based on age,” he said.
That’s very true. But the Charter also guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it “only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified.” That little line may upset Wiener’s battle. Though it may not be “fair,” the necessity of such an “infringement,” so to speak, can be easily justified.
Statistics show that drivers under 22 are simply more likely to be involved in fatal drinking and driving collisions than older drivers. Furthermore, age is not a static group; everyone is under 22 at some point, and some studies, such as one by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, show that brain development of an area inhibiting risky behaviour is not fully formed until 25. But of course, that’s academic mumbo-jumbo. Too bad that’s just what the Ontario Superior court loves to hear.
Now, there is a compelling argument for extending the ban to all new drivers, which frankly, may be a fairer move, but let’s be real; with an impending provincial election, better to place restrictions on a demographic with the poorest showing at the polls. But I digress.
Though Wiener certainly faces an uphill battle, at least he’s going about it the right way. Remember, if all else fails, write to the UN.
-Photo by DOliphant
Zero-alcohol limit a good idea for young drivers
Restrictions for drivers under 22 is strategic, not discriminatory
Is that a pig soaring over the Ontario Ministry of Transportation head office? Maybe so, because I’m about to applaud Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government.
Let’s just put that sex-ed flip-flopping, secret G20 imaginary lawmaking, eco-fee botching aside, and focus on the provincial government’s latest initiative.
Starting August 1, drivers aged 21 and younger in Ontario caught with any alcohol in their system will have their license automatically suspended for 24 hours. Offending drivers also risk a $500 fine and an extended 30-day suspension. Three violations will result in a cancelled license.
Now, perhaps I’m speaking with gloat of my recent 22nd birthday behind me, but this sounds like an all-around solid idea. There’s no reason why young drivers need to have a drink before driving, and let’s face it—most 19- to 21-year-olds aren’t pouring a glass to explore their taste in Argentinean Shiraz. Drinking and driving are not rights—exclusively or otherwise—so drivers under 22 can put their violins aside and decide between the keys and the bottle.
Easier said than done for some, however, especially the injustice-hunters who have been quick to inform the Twitterverse that the new regulations are “ageist.” Call it “ageism” if you want, but based on statistics that show drivers aged 19-21 are almost one and a half times more likely to be involved in fatal drinking and driving collisions than other drivers, it’s probably more appropriate to call it “strategic planning.”
Granted, a more infallible way to propose the new regulations would have been to extend the 20-month, zero-alcohol limit under the current graduated licensing system to up to five years for all new drivers, not just those under 22. That way, novice drivers, regardless of age, wouldn’t pair inexperience with alcohol.
But calling the new rules “discriminatory” is to ignore a plethora of information showing that young drivers, as a group, are not as safe on the road as older drivers. They simply don’t compare. And though it may be a group of bad eggs spoiling it for the rest, the differential treatment on the whole is justifiable. So put down the pint and find something else to do before you get behind the wheel. There’s always pig-watching.
-Photo by DOliphant
Binge drinking affects brains of university students, study finds
Adolescent brain more sensitive to neurotoxic effects of alcohol than the adult brain
Binge drinking could lead to nursing more head troubles than a hangover – it could alter brain functioning and memory, a new study suggests.
Researchers conducted a study of first-year Spanish university students to look at the impact binge drinking had on their attention and visual working memory processes.
The study defined binge drinkers as males who drink five or more standard alcoholic drinks within a two-hour interval on one occasion. Women who drank four or more drinks under the same conditions were classified as binge drinkers.
A total of 95 students from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwest Spain ranging in age from 18 to 20 took part. Forty-two students – including 21 females – were classified as binge drinkers. The remaining 53 – including 26 females – were identified as “control” students – those who didn’t drink enough to raise concerns.
A technique known as event-related potential, or ERP, was used to examine the participants in the study, which is slated to be published in the November issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
An ERP is the electrophysiological brain response to internal or external stimuli. Researchers paid close attention to monitor the negative and positive waveforms in the brain that are components of ERPs. The waveforms are associated with attention and working memory processes and have been shown to be particularly sensitive to alcohol.
Researchers found healthy young university students – meaning those with no alcohol use disorder, drug use, alcohol dependence or associated psychiatric disorders – who engaged in binge drinking required more attentional effort to complete a given task. That said, the task was still executed correctly.
“These electrophysiological differences found suggest the need on the part of binge drinkers for greater attentional processing during the task in order to carry it out correctly,” corresponding author Alberto Crego wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.
The ERPs were recorded during a visual “identical pairs” continuous performance task. Abstract figures were randomly presented in the centre of a computer monitor placed 100 centimetres in front of the subject’s eyes.
Students were instructed to press a button when two consecutive identical stimuli appeared and not to respond in the other cases. That meant they had to maintain each figure present in their working memory and had to respond if the next figure was the same.
Crego said the differences observed in the study may reflect impairment in both attention and working memory processes.
“Despite adequate performance, if alcohol-induced disruption increases, then performance-related problems may emerge.”
What’s more, researchers write that it has been suggested that the adolescent brain is more sensitive to the “neurotoxic effects” of alcohol and binge drinking than the adult brain, especially structures of the brain that mature later on in development. But Crego notes that further research is needed to clarify the effects of binge drinking on working memory. Longitudinal studies are also needed to understand the evolution of the binge drinking pattern “and of associated neurofunctional and behavioural alterations,” he wrote.
Liquor board reviews controversial distillery scholarship
“Spirit of Education” contest awards $3,000 for essay on responsible drinking
A scholarship that Canada’s distilleries hand out to the sons and daughters of workers at Ontario’s liquor agency has come under scrutiny as a possible breach of ethics.
The $3,000 prize has been awarded 12 times since its founding in 1998, including once to Roslyn Peter, daughter of Bob Peter, president of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. The most recent winner was announced in May.
The award, restricted to post-secondary students whose parents work at the LCBO, may violate tough conflict-of-interest guidelines imposed on the agency last August by the Ontario government.
The guidelines have dried up the flow of hundreds of free tickets the big distilleries and breweries had been giving to LCBO staff, for hockey games, concerts, curling matches and stage shows. Business meals worth less than $50 are still allowed.
The tighter rules are intended to ensure government workers don’t use their employment for personal enrichment by suppliers and clients.
But the so-called Spirit of Education scholarship was allowed to continue this year, despite the new restrictions outlined in the amended Public Service of Ontario Act.
Asked about ethical issues surrounding the scholarship, a spokeswoman for the LCBO said the agency is “reviewing our practices to ensure they are compliance with this legislation.”
“The Spirit of Education scholarship program has been scheduled as part of this review, and as a result, LCBO’s participation in this scholarship program may change,” Linda Hapak said in an email response.
“The review will include a legal perspective on this matter.”
The scholarship was created by the Association of Canadian Distillers, representing Canada’s major liquor producers, also known as Spirits Canada. The organization includes Corby Distilleries Ltd. and Diageo Canada Ltd.
Jan Westcott, president of Spirits Canada, said the award is intended to “encourage young people to consider careers in the hospitality industry.”
Alcohol-related deaths among U.S. students on the rise
Rates of binge drinking and drinking-and-driving also up
New research is showing that alcohol-related deaths among U.S. university students have been on the rise over the past decade, according to an article in the July supplement of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
For students between 18 and 24 years old, the number of drinking-related accidental deaths increased from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005. The stats were compiled by researchers at the American National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, using figures from government databases and national surveys on alcohol consumption.
Simultaneously, the proportion of students who reported recent binge drinking rose from 42 to 45 percent, while the proportion who admitted to drinking and driving in the past increased from 26.5 to 29 percent.
“The fact that we’re not making progress is very concerning,” said Ralph Hingson, lead researcher and director of the institute’s epidemiology and prevention research department. “The irony is that during this same time period, our knowledge of what works as far as intervention in this age group has increased.”
In an effort to fight alcohol problems in student populations, between 2004 and 2005, Hingson and his group selected 15 universities with serious student-drinking issues to work with the agency in an effort to develop new program. The resulting strategies ranged from counseling for students with drinking problems to projects involving the local community and law enforcement.
However, Hingson maintains that legislation can also have an impact on student deaths. Although rates of drinking and driving went up between 1998 and 2005, the trend started to reverse during that time period. In 2002, about 31 per cent of students drove under the influence, while in 2005 that number ent down to 29 per cent. Hingson says this can be correlated with the fact that, by 2005, all U.S. states had made it illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of .08 per cent or higher.
Rich, educated, tech-savvy binge drinkers
“Cyber Millennials” are more likely to consume risky amounts of alcohol
Affluent, highly educated and tech-savvy young adults are more likely to engage in binge drinking than many of their peers who are older, poorer and less educated, a new study suggests.
A cluster identified as “Cyber Millennials” – well-educated, tech-savvy individuals aged 25 to 44 with a median income of more than US$79,000 – was most likely to binge drink, according to findings that will be published in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
They live in urban fringe areas on the West Coast and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States, the study said.
While Cyber Millennials led the pack in risky levels of alcohol consumption, their other lifestyle habits ranked them among the most health-conscious segments of the population, and they had a lower-than-average smoking rate.
“They own bicycles, they buy organic foods, and they’re extremely health-conscious, but they engage in this rather health-destructive behaviour of binge drinking at least twice a month, and that’s fairly ironic from our perspective,” said study co-author Dr. Howard Moss, associate director for clinical and translational research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Research co-authored by the U.S.-based institute examined results of an annual phone survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control linked to 2004 census-tracked information about risky health practices of American citizens.
The CDC information was merged with widespread data collected from a marketing research firm, including household financial data and music preferences. From that, researchers identified 10 market segments or “clusters” most likely to take part in high-risk drinking.
The researchers found that 12.4 per cent of Cyber Millennials – more than 314,000 people – reported having five or more drinks on one occasion at least twice over the course of 30 days – which was double the U.S national average (6.1. per cent).
What’s more, half of the 10 clusters comprised young adults.
“When one thinks of heavy drinkers, at least in the United States, we typically think of 40-something males that have martinis at lunchtime and go home and relax with a few shots … so we were surprised about the age of some of the groups,” said Moss.
