Social smoking among US college students Moran, Susan; Wechsler, Henry; Rigotti, Nancy A
Pediatrics (Evanston),
10/2004, Letnik:
114, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Young smokers commonly identify themselves as "social smokers," a pattern of smoking behavior that is poorly understood. We assessed the prevalence and correlates of social smoking among US college ...students.
Cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 10,904 students enrolled at 119 nationally representative US colleges in 2001.
A total of 51% of 2401 current (past 30-day) smokers were social smokers. (To assess social smoking, students were asked, "In the past 30 days, do you smoke mainly when you are with people, mainly when you are alone, or do you smoke as often by yourself as with others?" Students who stated that they smoked mainly with others rather than alone or equally by themselves and others were defined as social smokers for this analysis.) Social smoking was independently associated with a lower frequency and intensity of tobacco use, less nicotine dependence, less intention to quit, and fewer recent quit attempts.
Social smoking is a distinct pattern of tobacco use that is common among college students and may represent a stage in the uptake of smoking.
Purpose: To examine the prevalence and changing patterns of ecstasy use among college students, and to determine characteristics, associated behaviors, and interests of ecstasy users.
Methods: The ...study analyzes data regarding ecstasy use and related behaviors from the 1997 and 1999 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study. This is a survey of a nationally representative sample of over 14,000 college students at 119 U.S. four-year colleges. Changes in self-reported annual ecstasy use were examined, and lifestyle and high-risk behaviors associated with Ecstasy use were identified. Data were analyzed using 2 × 2 Chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression fitted by the generalized estimating equations (GEE).
Results: The prevalence of past year ecstasy use rose from 2.8% to 4.7% between 1997 and 1999, an increase of 69%. This increase was observed across nearly all subgroups of student and college type. A smaller sample of ten colleges revealed that the increase continued in 2000. Ecstasy users were more likely to use marijuana, engage in binge drinking, smoke cigarettes, have multiple sexual partners, consider arts and parties as important, religion as less important, spend more times socializing with friends, and spend less times studying. Unlike other illicit drug users, ecstasy users were not academic underachievers and their satisfaction with education was not different from that of non-ecstasy users.
Conclusion: Ecstasy use is a high-risk behavior among college students which has increased rapidly in the past decade.
To determine whether alcohol outlet density was correlated with heavy and frequent drinking and drinking-related problems, we compared ecological measures of outlet density with survey measures of ...drinking using a geographic information system and the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (
n=3,421, site
n=8). We identified 966 outlets within 8 2-mile study areas. Densities/site ranged from 32 to 185. Density was correlated with heavy drinking (
r=0.82,
p=0.01), frequent drinking (
r=0.73,
p=0.04) and drinking-related problems (
r=0.79,
p=0.02). Women, underage students and students who picked up binge drinking in college were affected. Implications for prevention and research are discussed.
The authors report findings from the first national survey of gambling among college students. They collected information from 10,765 students attending 119 scientifically selected colleges included ...in the 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), which indicated that 42% of responding students gambled in the last school year and 2.6% gambled weekly or more frequently. These findings contradict the widely held opinion based on previous studies that gambling is prevalent among college students. Previous studies used convenience samples that might have overestimated the risk for gambling problems. Male students and students of legal age (> 21 y) were more likely than others to gamble. Availability of gambling, measured by the number of types of gambling venues located in the schools' states, influenced their decisions to gamble. The concordance of characteristics associated with both gambling and binge drinking suggested a disposition to take risks that is independent of the risk objects.
The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study surveyed students at a nationally representative sample of 4-year colleges in the United States four times between 1993 and 2001. More than ...50,000 students at 120 colleges took part in the study. This article reviews what we have learned about college drinking and the implications for prevention: the need to focus on lower drink thresholds, the harms produced at this level of drinking for the drinkers, the secondhand effects experienced by other students and neighborhood residents, the continuing extent of the problem, and the role of the college alcohol environment in promoting heavy drinking by students. In particular, the roles of campus culture, alcohol control policies, enforcement of policies, access, availability, pricing, marketing, and special promotions of alcohol are highlighted.
A variety of social factors are expected to contribute to health behaviors among college students. The goal of this paper is to describe the relationships of two different aspects of the campus ...social environment, namely the campus resources for gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) students and the campus-wide behavioral norms of substance use, to the individual substance-use behaviors of college students with same-sex experiences. Individual-level data come from 630 college students reporting same-sex experience, who were part of a national random sample returning questionnaires. Current cigarette smoking and binge drinking were examined. College-level data regarding the campus resources designed for GLB students were collected and used with campus-wide substance-use norms to predict individual substance use in logistic regression analyses. One-third to one-half of students reported current smoking and binge drinking, by sex and sex-partner category. The presence of GLB resources was inversely associated with women's smoking and directly associated with men's binge drinking behaviors. The proportion of students reporting same-sex behavior on campus was directly associated with these same outcomes, and behavioral norms were not associated with either outcome. Findings provide a glimpse into the influence of the social environment on the use of two of the most widely used substances at American colleges, and suggest that contextual approaches to explaining and controlling substance use may be important.
Integrating data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, national coroner studies, census and college enrollment data for ...18-24-year-olds, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, and the Harvard College Alcohol Survey, we calculated the alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths and other health problems among college students ages 18-24 in 1998 and 2001. Among college students ages 18-24 from 1998 to 2001, alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths increased from nearly 1600 to more than 1700, an increase of 6% per college population. The proportion of 18-24-year-old college students who reported driving under the influence of alcohol increased from 26.5% to 31.4%, an increase from 2.3 million students to 2.8 million. During both years more than 500,000 students were unintentionally injured because of drinking and more than 600,000 were hit/assaulted by another drinking student. Greater enforcement of the legal drinking age of 21 and zero tolerance laws, increases in alcohol taxes, and wider implementation of screening and counseling programs and comprehensive community interventions can reduce college drinking and associated harm to students and others.
The effectiveness of 2 major tobacco control policies in discouraging cigarette smoking among young adults is examined. In particular, the effects of cigarette prices (which can be raised by ...increasing cigarette excise taxes) and restrictions on smoking in public places and private worksites on smoking participation and cigarette consumption among students in US colleges and universities is studied. The results indicate that higher cigarette excise taxes, which would raise cigarette prices, would result in substantial reductions in both smoking participation and average daily cigarette consumption among US college students. In contrast, policies restricting smoking in public places and private worksites appear to have a smaller impact.
Heavy alcohol use among U.S. college students is a major contributor to young adult morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to examine whether college alcohol policy enforcement levels ...predict changes in student drinking and related behaviors in a state system of public colleges and universities, following a system-wide change to a stricter policy.
Students and administrators at 11 Massachusetts public colleges/universities completed surveys in 1999 (N of students = 1252), one year after the policy change, and again in 2001 (N = 1074). We calculated policy enforcement scores for each school based on the reports of deans of students, campus security chiefs, and students, and examined the correlations between perceived enforcement levels and the change in student drinking rates over the subsequent two year period, after weighting the 2001 data to adjust for demographic changes in the student body.
Overall rates of any past-30-days drinking, heavy episodic drinking, and usual heavy drinking among past-30-days drinkers were all lower in 2001 compared to 1999. School-level analyses (N = 11) found deans' baseline reports of stricter enforcement were strongly correlated with subsequent declines in heavy episodic drinking (Pearson's r = -0.73, p = 0.011). Moreover, consistently high enforcement levels across time, as reported by deans, were associated with greater declines in heavy episodic drinking. Such relationships were not found for students' and security chiefs' reports of enforcement. Marijuana use did not rise during this period of decline in heavy drinking.
Study findings suggest that stronger enforcement of a stricter alcohol policy may be associated with reductions in student heavy drinking rates over time. An aggressive enforcement stance by deans may be an important element of an effective college alcohol policy.
ABSTRACT
Aims To examine the prevalence rates and correlates of non‐medical use of prescription stimulants (Ritalin, Dexedrine or Adderall) among US college students in terms of student and college ...characteristics.
Design A self‐administered mail survey.
Setting One hundred and nineteen nationally representative 4‐year colleges in the United States.
Participants A representative sample of 10 904 randomly selected college students in 2001.
Measurements Self‐reports of non‐medical use of prescription stimulants and other substance use behaviors.
Findings The life‐time prevalence of non‐medical prescription stimulant use was 6.9%, past year prevalence was 4.1% and past month prevalence was 2.1%. Past year rates of non‐medical use ranged from zero to 25% at individual colleges. Multivariate regression analyses indicated non‐medical use was higher among college students who were male, white, members of fraternities and sororities and earned lower grade point averages. Rates were higher at colleges located in the north‐eastern region of the US and colleges with more competitive admission standards. Non‐medical prescription stimulant users were more likely to report use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and other risky behaviors.
Conclusions The findings of the present study provide evidence that non‐medical use of prescription stimulants is more prevalent among particular subgroups of US college students and types of colleges. The non‐medical use of prescription stimulants represents a high‐risk behavior that should be monitored further and intervention efforts are needed to curb this form of drug use.
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