National Alcohol Screening Day® Quickly Approaching

National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD) 2006 is April 6th, which believe it or not, is just around the corner. Is your school participating?

Last year, 568 college sites participated in the NASD program. Nearly 17,100 in-person screening forms were collected, and an additional 15,219 students were screened through the online program. The 2005 NASD program has some very important findings, which reinforce the importance of screening students for alcohol problems.

Results include:

  • 31.4% of college students screened at an in-person event had scores that fell into the range of hazardous or harmful drinking habits* (26.7% hazardous, 4.7% harmful).
  • 57.1% of college students screened online had scores that fell into the range of hazardous or harmful drinking habits (40.3% hazardous, 16.84% harmful).
  • Results of the in-person screenings show that 36.5% of hazardous drinkers and 61.7% of harmful drinkers admitted to drunk driving in the past 12 months.
  • For the in-person event, 24% of students with scores in the hazardous range and 25% in the harmful range were advised to talk to a doctor. Advice to reduce drinking was given to 46.3% and 32.6% of those scoring in the hazardous and harmful ranges, respectively.
  • Of those that scored in the hazardous or harmful range on the online screening, 15.5% planned to seek further evaluation for an alcohol problem, 66.5% did not plan to seek further evaluation, and 18% did not respond to the question.

As the weather gets warmer and the end of the academic year approaches, student celebrations begin on college campuses across the country. Consider educating students on your campus about the dangers of alcohol abuse, and the resources available for them. If you would like to register your school for NASD, you can visit our website at www.NationalAlcoholScreeningDay.org/college, or call our main office at 781-239-0071.

*Hazardous Drinking: Hazardous use is a pattern of alcohol consumption carrying with it a risk of harmful consequences to the drinker. These consequences may be damage to health, physical or mental, or they may include social consequences to the drinker or others. Harmful Drinking: Harmful use is defined as a pattern of drinking that is already causing damage to health. The damage may be either physical (e.g., liver damage from chronic drinking) or mental (e.g., depressive episodes secondary to drinking). Brief Intervention for Hazardous and Harmful Drinking: A Manual for Use in Primary Care, Thomas F. Babor, John C. Higgins-Biddle. World Health Organization. 2001.