More Canadian Students
Drink, but American Students Drink More Heavily: Comparing Alcohol Use
in Canada and the U.S.
December 16, 2002 (Toronto) For Immediate Release: More Canadian students
drink alcohol but American students drink more according to the first
comparison of national alcohol studies among university/college students
published this month in the journal Addiction.
"The good news for Canada is that while there are more students
drinking here, there is not as much heavy use of alcohol, which has very
significant health risks," said Dr. Ed Adlaf, Research Scientist,
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), and associate professor
with the Department of Public Health Science at the University of Toronto,
one of the authors of the study.
The present study compares two national surveys, the 1998 Canadian Campus
Survey conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the
1999 College Alcohol Study (CAS) conducted by the Harvard School of Public
Health. The self-report surveys were conducted with 16 nationally representative
four-year universities in Canada and 119 nationally representative US
four-year colleges and universities in 40 states.
More Canadian students than US students (92% versus 86%) reported having
drank at some point in their life and in the past year (87% vs. 81%).
Among those students who drink, however, heavy drinking, defined as five
or more drinks in a row for males/four or more for females, was found
to be more prevalent among US than Canadian students. The differences
increased among past-year drinkers (41% vs. 35%) and past- week drinkers
(54% vs. 42%).
In both countries, older students and students living at home with their
parents are less likely to be heavy drinkers; students who report first
drunkenness before the age of 16 are more likely to be heavy drinkers
in college. These results led the authors to suggest that programs aimed
at students' heavy alcohol use should target first year students at entry
or earlier.
"Our results provide new insight to the potential cross-national
differences on important issues, like the gender gap in drinking, and
the protective role parents may play. These findings could be used to
advance research on heavy drinking in campuses across North America,"
said Dr. Henry Wechsler, principal investigator of the Harvard School
of Public Health College Alcohol Study.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is Canada's largest mental
health and addiction facility fully affiliated with the University of
Toronto. CAMH is a PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre. Harvard School of Public
Health College Alcohol Study is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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For interviews with the Canadian researchers, please contact, Anne Ptasznik,
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at 416-595-6015. For interviews
with Dr. Wechsler, please contact: Amanda Franks and Dionne Dougall, Burness
Communications at 301-652-1558.
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1-800-463-6273
