At U.S. Colleges, binge drinking is on the rise

By HealthDay News

"Binge drinking among American college students is on the rise, along with its consequences of drunk driving and drinking-related deaths, U.S. health officials report."

"In fact, drinking-related deaths among students aged 18 to 24 years have increased steadily from 1,440 a year in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005, according to a report from the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Binge drinking also increased during this time, with the proportion of students who said they'd binged on alcohol in the past month going up from 42 to 45 percent. ..."

"Hingson [lead researcher Ralph Hingson, director of the institute's division of epidemiology and prevention research] said that a number of interventions have been shown to work, including counseling high-risk drinkers, raising the price of alcohol, and getting colleges, community health departments and police to work together on the problem. ..."

Full article available at http://www.forbes.com/feeds/hscout/2009/06/15/hscout628059.html