A
Snapshot of Annual High-Risk College Drinking Consequences
The consequences of excessive and underage drinking affect virtually all college campuses, college communities, and college students, whether they choose to drink
Death: 1,825 college students between the
ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including
motor vehicle crashes (Hingson et al., 2009).
Injury: 599,000 students between the ages of
18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2009).
Assault: 696,000 students between the ages of
18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking (Hingson et al., 2009).
Sexual Abuse: 97,000 students between the ages of
18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (Hingson et al., 2009).
Unsafe Sex: 400,000 students between the ages of 18
and 24 had unprotected sex and more than 100,000 students between the ages of
18 and 24 report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to
having sex (Hingson et al., 2002).
Academic Problems: About 25 percent of college students
report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling
behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall (Engs et al., 1996; Presley et al., 1996a, 1996b; Wechsler et al., 2002).
Health Problems/Suicide
Attempts: More than 150,000
students develop an alcohol-related health problem (Hingson et al., 2002), and between 1.2 and 1.5
percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past
year due to drinking or drug use (Presley et al., 1998).
Drunk Driving: 3,360,000 students between the ages of 18
and 24 drive under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2009).
Vandalism: About 11 percent of college student
drinkers report that they have damaged property while under the influence of
alcohol (Wechsler et al., 2002).
Property Damage: More than 25 percent of administrators
from schools with relatively low drinking levels and over 50 percent from
schools with high drinking levels say their campuses have a
"moderate" or "major" problem with alcohol-related property
damage (Wechsler et al., 1995).
Police Involvement: About 5 percent of 4-year college students
are involved with the police or campus security as a result of their drinking (Wechsler et al., 2002), and 110,000
students between the ages of 18 and 24 are arrested for an alcohol-related
violation such as public drunkenness or driving under the influence (Hingson et al., 2002).
Alcohol Abuse and
Dependence: 31 percent of
college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent
for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to
questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking (Knight et al., 2002).