CHICAGO — Government researchers say “deplorably” few college students are warned by doctors about the danger from alcohol and drugs or encouraged to reduce drinking or substance use.
Their survey suggests that most doctors ask college students and other young adults about alcohol or drug use at regularly scheduled visits. But doctors don’t go much beyond that initial question less than half of the time.
The study by National Institutes of Health researchers was published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. Some highlights about the findings:
• THE SURVEY.
About 2,100 college students and other young adults across the country were asked in 2012 and 2013 if they’d seen a doctor in the previous year and had been asked and counseled about their drinking, smoking and drug use.
• DOCTORS & COUNSELING.
Most of those surveyed had a recent doctor visit where they were asked about smoking, drinking and substance abuse. Fewer than half the college students said they’d been counseled about risks of those habits. Only one-third of college students who told researchers they’d been drunk at least six times in the previous month said doctors had advised them to cut down or stop. That advice was slightly less common for college students who were frequent smokers or drug users.
• DRINKING STATS.
Overall, 40 percent of participants told researchers they’d consumed five or more drinks on at least one occasion and 10 percent had been drunk at least six times in the past month.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol is linked with nearly 2,000 deaths each year among college students, and many more assaults and date rapes.
