ALCOHOL USE AND INTOXICATION IN SPORT UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 427–430, 2003 doi:10.1093/alcalc/agg105, available online at www.alcalc.oupjournals.org ALCOHOL USE AND INTOXICATION IN SPORT UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FABRICE O. LORENTE*, PATRICK PERETTI-WATEL2, JEAN GRIFFET1 and LAURENT GRÉLOT Departments of Physiology and 1Psycho-sociology and IFR Marey 107, Faculty of Sport Sciences Marseilles, University of the Mediterranean, Marseilles and 2 Regional Centre for Disease Control of South-Eastern France, Inserm U379, Marseilles, France (Received 7 March 2003; first review notified 6 April 2003; in revised form 9 May 2003; accepted 13 May 2003) Abstract — Aims: To investigate patterns of alcohol consumption and intoxication in French sport science students. Methods: Secondand third-year sport university students (n = 677) completed an anonymous self-report questionnaire. Results and Conclusions: 20.4% reported more than six episodes of intoxication during the previous year. Male students drank more frequently and were more frequently intoxicated than were female students. Compared to their peers in the general population, sport students drank less frequently, but reported more episodes of intoxication. There were no differences in frequency of intoxication according to competitive level. INTRODUCTION terms employed to describe drinking behaviour, we wanted to test for the presence of a gender effect on alcohol consumption and intoxication among French sport university students. We focused on this population due to the controversial relation between participation in sports and alcohol use. Some studies indicate less alcohol consumption among subjects involved in sports (Thorlindsson, 1989; Donato et al., 1994) whereas others indicate the opposite (Faulkner and Slaterry, 1990), especially among male students (Aaron et al., 1995). It is important to evaluate the pattern of alcohol use among young adults studying sports sciences, as most of them will become teachers, managers or coaches, and perhaps role models for future generations of young people. In developed countries, alcohol is generally considered a major cause of injuries and mortality in adolescents and young adults. Alcohol use and intoxication are related not just to interpersonal violence and road accidents but also to unprotected sexual intercourse (Leigh, 1999). Some studies carried out on alcohol and illicit drug use in adolescents have been based on surveys conducted in secondary school (Bruner and Fishman, 1998; Miller and Plant, 1999; Hellandsjo Bu et al., 2002; Peretti-Watel et al., 2002). Alcohol use and abuse among young adults has also been studied among college and university students. A US study (Wechsler et al., 1994) examined drinking among 17 592 college students. Almost half of these subjects were ‘binge drinkers’, almost one-fifth being frequent binge drinkers. Gill (2002) recently reviewed 18 studies investigating the drinking behaviour of undergraduate students in UK universities over a 25-year period. She indicated that significant numbers of male and female students (with a male: female ratio of 52:43%) exceeded sensible weekly consumption guidelines (i.e. 14 units per week for women and 21 units per week for men) and that there is extreme variation between the 18 studies in the recorded levels of binge drinking among students (27–64%, and 14–63%, for male and female students, respectively). Gill concluded that the binge drinking levels among UK undergraduate students may exceed those of their peers in the general population and those of their US counterparts. Some studies found that male students drank more alcohol more often, and became intoxicated more frequently, than female students (Nyström et al., 1993; Roncone et al., 1996; O’Malley and Johnston, 2002). On the other hand, in a UK survey of 244 medical students (Granville-Chapman et al., 2001), in the second year female students drank as much as male students. Based on these contradictory results, which may reflect different cultural contexts and discrepancies in the SUBJECTS AND METHODS The present study is based on a self-report questionnaire that included a total of 87 items in which the population was characterized in terms of demographics (three items), sports participation (five items), alcohol consumption and intoxication (13 items), and use and abuse of other substances (66 items). This questionnaire was administered between November and December 2002, unannounced, to a sample of 915 university students from three sport sciences departments in southern France: Marseilles (n = 310), Montpellier (n = 420) and Perpignan (n = 185). Only second- and third-year students were included in our study. First-year students were excluded because about 65% of them do not pass the end-of-year exams; thus, they may not be representative of students in sports science. Fourth-year students were excluded either because some may be influenced by courses on addiction, doping and drug abuse (in Marseilles and Montpellier). Because students were questioned on behaviours that are subject to societal disapproval (or are even illegal), it was made clear to them that the survey was anonymous and strictly confidential, with no ‘right or wrong’ answers. Students were also free to refuse to participate in the survey. Approximately 25–30 subjects participated in each session, which lasted about 20 min. Subjects sat one per table, each table separated from the others by at least 2 m in all directions. An investigator was always present to ensure absence of communication between subjects. At the end of the session, the individual questionnaires were placed in a common ballot box. *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Physiology, (UPRES ES 3285), IFR Marey 107 163 avenue de Luminy, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of the Mediterranean, Marseilles, France. E-mail: 427 Alcohol & Alcoholism 38 © Medical Council on Alcohol 2003; all rights reserved 428 F. O. LORENTE et al. The relations between categorical variables were examined using Pearson’s χ2, which tested the independence hypothesis between either sex or level of competitive sport and alcohol use. Data analysis was carried out with SPSS software, version 10.1 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS One hundred and fifty students (Marseilles, 49; Montpellier, 56; Perpignan, 45) of 915 (16%) were absent on the day of the survey. As regular attendance at lectures is not compulsory in French universities, this level of absence is typical; students may have been absent because of illness, participation in sports or employment (Grignon et al., 2000). All students who were present (n = 765) agreed to participate, but 88 questionnaires (Marseilles, 33; Montpellier, 28; Perpignan, 27) were excluded from analysis because of incomplete answers. Thus, analysis was based on 677 fully completed questionnaires. The mean response rate (i.e., the ratio of respondents to students present) averaged 88.5% (...truncated)