Underage Alcohol Use among Full-Time College Students

The NSDUH Report:  Underage Alcohol Use among Full-Time College Students

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Highlights

• SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use & Health examined trends and patterns in the rates of alcohol use by full time college students aged 18 to 20 and found that the rates of past month, binge, and heavy alcohol use remained steady from 2002 to 2005. Binge drinking was defined as 5 or more drinks on the same occasion at least one day in the past month.

• Based on combined data from the 2002 to 2005 National Surveys on Drug Use & Health, 57.8% of full time college students underage for legal drinking used alcohol in the past month, 40.1% engaged in binge drinking, and 16.6% engaged in heavy drinking.

• Based on the 2002-2005 combined data of full time college students aged 18 to 20, males were more likely than females to have used alcohol in the past month (60.4% vs. 55.6%), binge drank (46.9% vs. 34.4%), or drank heavily (22.7% vs. 11.5%).

  Reports on underage drinking

  Reports on school/college students

  Reports on other drugs

  Other topics

This Short Report, The NSDUH Report:  Underage Alcohol Use among Full-Time College Students Update, is based on SAMHSA's  National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.   The NSDUH also provides estimates for drug use by state.

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This page was last updated on March 31, 2008.