Journal
DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE
Volume 116, Issue 1-3, Pages 242-245Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2010.12.013
Keywords
Tailgating; Heavy episodic drinking; College football; Alcohol; Sporting events
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) [T32-DA-07313-10]
- [T32-DA-021129]
- [F31-DA-021040]
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Internationally, sporting events represent a specific context in which heavy episodic drinking is common. The current study assessed determinants of heavy episodic drinking among tailgaters (i.e., individuals engaging in pre-game social festivities) prior to American football games at two large universities. A total of 466 individuals at two universities completed a short interview and provided a breathalyzer sample to estimate breath alcohol content (BrAC) during the tailgating window (150 min prior to and 10 min after the start of the game). The plurality of participants, 48.5% at the southeastern university (School1) and 58.8% at the midwestern university (School2), engaged in heavy episodic drinking. Only 54 individuals (11.6%) from the combined sample at both universities abstained from alcohol (confirmed via BrAC). In total, 40.2% of participants at School1 and 31.9% at School2 produced breath samples over the legal limit for driving (i.e., BrAC = 0.08 or higher). In site-specific regression analyses, younger ages, males, and non-students at SchooL1, and younger ages and non-game attendance at School2 were associated with self-reported heavy episodic drinking and higher levels of estimated BrAC (p <0.05). Given the widespread participation in heavy episodic drinking among both students and non-students in this sample, public health interventions should be implemented both on- and off-campus to promote safety and to discourage heavy episodic drinking at American football games and other high-profile sporting events. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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