Original researchAlcohol consumption and attitudes towards banning alcohol sales on campus among European university students
Introduction
High alcohol consumption among university students is an increasingly documented health concern in many countries.1 To date, most reports have been from the USA and have shown excessive alcohol use among college students, including binge drinking (a drinking style characterized by a high number of drinks per occasion) and heavy episodic drinking (a drinking style characterized by high consumption periods).2 Alcohol use has been associated with injuries, unplanned and unprotected sex, sexual aggression, fighting and violence, property damage, and drinking and driving, thus posing a problem for students involved in heavy drinking and for those around them.3, 4 Alcohol use among college students occurs irrespective of students' academic disciplines, as studies have shown alcohol use across all fields of study.5
Alcohol use has been explained by a multifactorial framework that includes intra- (individual) and interpersonal (group) processes, as well as institutions, communities and public policy. The individual-level factors influencing alcohol use include: gender, race/ethnicity, alcohol-related beliefs and attitudes, use of alcohol by significant others (e.g. parents, partner and peers/friends), and group memberships (e.g. fraternity/sorority/athletics).6, 7, 8 Alcohol use tends to increase as students leave their parents' homes and move to on- and off-campus college residences.9 In addition, alcohol use has been shown to be associated with smoking2 and depressive symptoms.10
Several studies have assessed alcohol use among college students in Germany,11 France,12 Spain,13 Greece,9 Italy,14 the UK15 and Finland.16 Fewer studies have examined alcohol use among student populations in countries that have joined the European Union (EU) recently, such as Poland,17 Slovakia18 and Lithuania,19 or in candidate countries, such as Turkey.20 As alcohol consumption measures varied between studies, comparisons between countries are difficult. The only cross-national study on heavy drinking among university students, conducted with 15 European countries and some countries outside Europe, showed large variations in alcohol consumption between countries.21
The European Commission's new health strategy for improving health at the EU level includes tackling a number of key issues, including alcohol consumption (http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_overview/Documents/strategy_wp_en.pdf). Studies show that restricting the availability of alcohol leads to a decrease in alcohol consumption in the general population22 and among college students.23, 24, 25 However, experiences with university alcohol policies have shown that their implementation can fail if policies are rejected.26 Therefore, it is important to examine the extent to which students in various European countries support a ban of alcohol sales on campus.
Based on this background, the first aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of alcohol consumption and problem drinking in university students from seven European countries. According to country differences in cultural backgrounds and drinking patterns of the general population, a high frequency of daily drinking in the Southern and Western countries and a low frequency of daily drinking in Turkey (predominantly Islamic) was hypothesized. The second aim was to study the relevant predictors for alcohol use, such as gender, psychosocial factors and smoking. It was hypothesized that more frequent alcohol consumption would be associated with unfavourable health practices, unfavourable psychosocial conditions and male gender. The third aim was to assess attitudes towards banning alcohol sales on campus across different European student samples. It was hypothesized that in countries with less frequent alcohol consumption, more students would support alcohol restriction policies on campus than in countries with more frequent consumption.
Section snippets
Data collection
The data presented in this paper were obtained from the Cross National Student Health Survey.27 In total, 5826 students at universities in seven countries were included: Bielefeld University, Germany; Lublin University, Poland; Sofia University, Bulgaria; Public University of Navarra and Pamplona Catholic University, both in Pamplona, Spain; Kaunas University, Lithuania; the University of Southern Denmark, with its campuses in Odense, Kolding, Esbjerg and Sønderborg; and the University of
Description of the samples and frequency of drinking alcohol
With the exception of Denmark, more female students participated in the survey than male students (Table 1). Denmark and Germany had the highest proportions of older students. Spanish and Turkish students were more likely to report sufficient income, and Lithuanian and Danish students were more likely to report insufficient income. For country comparison with respect to alcohol consumption, data from the World Health Organization (WHO) European Health for All statistical database are included
Discussion
This study described the frequency of alcohol consumption and the prevalence of problem drinking in university students from seven European countries. The findings with respect to frequency of alcohol consumption are in good agreement with previous studies undertaken in Europe.35, 36 There is limited opportunity for direct comparison between the present findings and those of another international study on alcohol consumption among university students,21 since the only countries that were
Acknowledgements
In addition to the authors, the Cross National Students Health Study group includes: S. Meier (Germany); N. Bilir, D. Aslan (Turkey); J. Klumbiene, I. Miseviciene (Lithuania); S. Ilieva (Bulgaria); F. Guillen-Grima (Spain), and others.
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