The Negative Consequences Of Binge Drinking

Introduction Heavy drinking is a huge public health issue as it often creates many negative consequences for both the alcohol abuser and people around him. Heavy drinking have led to negative consequence such as alcoholism, death, unintentional injuries, assaults, sexual assaults and decrease productivity in school or work. Researchers have found that the college student is a specific group that is at high risk of facing alcohol related problems or become a victim as result of alcohol related crimes and the abuse of alcohol through binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as drinking five or more drinks by a man or four or more drinks by a woman within a period of 2 hours on 1 or more

The intervention took place in two different freshman resident halls. One of the resident hall had intervention through showing student their blood alcohol concentration when they were drinking previous night and provide extra alcohol related information, provide self-assessment activities and provide the opportunity to consult a clinician. The other resident hall was not provided any intervention as a comparison with intervention residence fall. Through the comparison of two buildings, it was found that many drinkers participated and checked their blood alcohol concentration due to curiosity of their blood alcohol concentration, and did not pay any attention to the intervention information. Additionally, it found no significant difference in the blood alcohol concentration between the two resident halls after two academic years of

For example, an intervention that took place in university student health center with the use of Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) showed positive results. The intervention showed that out of 48 students who finished the intervention and participated in the follow-up evaluation, only 6% of the students reported increase in their alcohol consumption, 46% reported decreasing alcohol consumption and 6% reported they had quit drinking. Furthermore, majority of the students were able to recall the alcohol related information. In fact, 75% of the students who participated in the alcohol intervention reported that the intervention was helpful (Ehrlich, et al., 2006). A similar alcohol intervention also using AUDIT in the emergency department of the university hospital also had positive results similar to the university health center intervention. The intervention in an university hospital emergency department had reported that out of the 296 students who completed the 3 month follow-up, there was a 65% decrease in alcohol intake, 54% decrease in alcohol related harm, 40% decrease in alcohol dependence symptoms, and the total AUDIT score was decreased for 78% of the 296 students (Helmkamp, et al., 2003).