Despite efforts to sour the taste for alcohol among college students, the percentage of students going on binges stayed roughly the same through the 1990s, and the percentage of frequent bingers actually increased, researchers said Tuesday.
But the percentage of teetotalers also increased somewhat, according to the survey released by the Harvard School of Public Health.The survey conducted a year ago was third in a series that in 1993 and 1997 asked students about their drinking habits. Research was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which focuses on health issues.
The survey of 14,000 undergraduates found that 44 percent were binge drinkers, compared with 43 percent in 1997, and 45 percent in 1993. The students surveyed were chosen randomly from students at 119 four-year colleges around the country.
Bingers were defined as men who downed at least five drinks in a row on at least one occasion in the two weeks before the survey, or women who had at least four drinks in a row.
Nineteen percent of those surveyed were abstainers -- defined in the survey as students who drank no alcohol for at least a year -- up from 15 percent in 1993.
At the other extreme were students who binged at least three times in the two weeks preceding the survey. Between 1993 and 1999, their ranks grew from just under 20 percent to 23 percent.
A "drink" was defined as 12 ounces of beer or wine cooler, 4 ounces of wine or a 1 1/4-ounce shot of liquor.
The survey was published in the March issue of the Journal of American College Health.
The survey's authors suggested schools could tackle the problem by looking at how alcohol is sold and advertised around campus, considering prospective students' drinking histories, offering recreational and weekend activities to replace partying and not letting classes or exams go easy on Fridays.
"Education by itself is not going to solve this problem," said Henry Wechsler, a social psychologist and Harvard researcher who led the surveys.