Alcohol and Athletes

In the article, Alcohol and College Athletes (2001), Nelson and Wechsler take a look at college athletes and how heavy episodic alcohol consumption can be of harm to them. They randomly selected students from four year universities and qualified athletes as “students who participated in at least one hour of intercollegiate athletics per day.”  They then classified binge drinking for both men and women. Binge drinking for men was classified as having five or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion in the last two weeks. For women, binge drinking was classified as having four or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion in the last two weeks.  According to their findings, athletes are more likely to binge drink then other students.  They also found that athletes are more prone to social ties that are associated with binge drinking.  Another finding was that athletes are more likely than non-athletes to suffer alcohol-related harms.

I found the results of this study very surprising. Attending a large university like Penn State, where there is a huge emphasis placed on the success of the sports teams, I would have figured athletes drink far less than other students. I would have guessed that between classes, workouts, practices, and games there would be hardly any time to drink especially binge drink. I would have to question the schools the researchers surveyed. Perhaps they surveyed lower level Division III schools where athletes might have a bit more leeway with their schedules. I just found it surprising that athletes drink more than non-athletes.  

http://www.setantacollege.com/wp-content/uploads/Journal_db/Alcohol%20and%20college%20athletes.pdf