Controlling unhealthy drinking among College Students

Today, drinking remains highly prevalent on college campuses worldwide. A new study looked at how effective a web-based screening and intervention program was for reducing unhealthy alcohol use among college students on a national scale. “This study was done amongst a sample of students who exhibited fairly moderate to heavy drinking.” Dr. Nicholas Horton from Amherst College and co-authors used an online questionnaire to identify students with unhealthy drinking habits from all seven universities in New Zealand. Half the students were assigned at random to receive personalized feedback after answering questions about their drinking habits. The other students received no personalized feedback. Five months later researchers followed up with the students on certain aspects of their drinking.  “The intervention group tended to have less drinking, less problems then the control but the effects were relatively modest.”  The study appears in JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association.