Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2010 Dec;39(6):491-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2010.08.020.

Alcohol risk management in college settings: the safer California universities randomized trial

Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Alcohol risk management in college settings: the safer California universities randomized trial

Robert F Saltz et al. Am J Prev Med. 2010 Dec.

Abstract

Context: Potentially effective environmental strategies have been recommended to reduce heavy alcohol use among college students. However, studies to date on environmental prevention strategies are few in number and have been limited by their nonexperimental designs, inadequate sample sizes, and lack of attention to settings where the majority of heavy drinking events occur.

Purpose: To determine whether environmental prevention strategies targeting off-campus settings would reduce the likelihood and incidence of student intoxication at those settings.

Design: The Safer California Universities study involved 14 large public universities, half of which were assigned randomly to the Safer intervention condition after baseline data collection in 2003. Environmental interventions took place in 2005 and 2006 after 1 year of planning with seven Safer intervention universities. Random cross-sectional samples of undergraduates completed online surveys in four consecutive fall semesters (2003-2006).

Setting/participants: Campuses and communities surrounding eight campuses of the University of California and six in the California State University system were utilized. The study used random samples of undergraduates (∼500-1000 per campus per year) attending the 14 public California universities.

Intervention: Safer environmental interventions included nuisance party enforcement operations, minor decoy operations, driving-under-the-influence checkpoints, social host ordinances, and use of campus and local media to increase the visibility of environmental strategies.

Main outcome measures: Proportion of drinking occasions in which students drank to intoxication at six different settings during the fall semester (residence hall party, campus event, fraternity or sorority party, party at off-campus apartment or house, bar/restaurant, outdoor setting), any intoxication at each setting during the semester, and whether students drank to intoxication the last time they went to each setting.

Results: Significant reductions in the incidence and likelihood of intoxication at off-campus parties and bars/restaurants were observed for Safer intervention universities compared to controls. A lower likelihood of intoxication was observed also for Safer intervention universities the last time students drank at an off-campus party (OR=0.81, 95% CI=0.68, 0.97); a bar or restaurant (OR=0.76, 95% CI=0.62, 0.94); or any setting (OR=0.80, 95% CI=0.65, 0.97). No increase in intoxication (e.g., displacement) appeared in other settings. Further, stronger intervention effects were achieved at Safer universities with the highest level of implementation.

Conclusions: Environmental prevention strategies targeting settings where the majority of heavy drinking events occur appear to be effective in reducing the incidence and likelihood of intoxication among college students.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow of clusters (university campuses) through the group-randomized prevention trial.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Trends in percentage of students who reported getting drunk the last time they went to (a) an off-campus party, (b) a bar/restaurant, and (c) any setting, by time and intervention condition; and (d) last time at any setting by time by intervention intensity. Percentages are adjusted for model covariates indicated in Table 2. All differences in slopes are significant (see Table 2).

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Hingson RW, Zha W, Weitzman ER. Magnitude of and trends in alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18–24, 1998–2005. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs. 2009 Supplement No. 16:12–20. - PMC - PubMed
    1. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges. Bethesda, MD: 2002. NIH Pub. No. 02-5010.
    1. Hingson RW, McGovern T, Howland J, Hereen T, Winter M, Zakocs R. Reducing alcohol-impaired driving in Massachusetts: the saving lives program. Am J Public Health. 1996;86(791–797) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Holder HD, Gruenewald PJ, Ponicki WR, et al. Effect of community-based interventions on high-risk drinking and alcohol-related injuries. JAMA. 2000;284(18):2341–2347. - PubMed
    1. Wagenaar AC, Murray DM, Gehan JP, et al. Communities mobilizing for change on alcohol: outcomes from a randomized community trial. J Stud Alcohol. 2000;61(1):85–94. - PubMed

Publication types