Research articleThe marketing of alcohol to college students: The role of low prices and special promotions☆
Introduction
H eavy episodic or “binge” drinking (the consumption of ≥5 drinks in a row for men and ≥4 for women, at least once in the past 2 weeks) has been recognized as a major problem on American college campuses by college presidents,1, 2 alcohol researchers,3 the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA),4 and the U.S. Surgeon General.5 Several national studies have found that approximately two out of five college students are binge drinkers.6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Binge drinking has been associated with problems such as property damage, physical injuries, unwanted sexual advances, and encounters with police.9, 11, 12, 13 In addition, binge drinking is associated with secondhand effects such as interruption of study or sleep, having to babysit a drunken student, or being victim of a physical and sexual assault.13, 14 With regard to any type of alcohol consumption, it is estimated that 1400 college students die each year from alcohol-related injuries.15
Alcohol availability is associated with increased alcohol consumption among the general population as well as among young adults and older adolescents.16, 17, 18, 19 Heavy alcohol consumption by college students and others is encouraged by a “wet” environment, in which alcohol is prominent and easily accessible.20, 21 Previous studies have documented the effect of price on alcohol consumption in the general population and among young adults and adolescents. In general, as the price of alcohol increases, consumption rates decrease.22, 23, 24, 25 Conversely, as the price of alcohol decreases, consumption rates increase. Moreover, young people are more affected by price of alcohol.26, 27, 28 Alcohol outlets near college campuses commonly use various discounts and promotions to attract students, and alcohol promotions and specials may increase consumption. For example, Babor et al.29 found that both heavy and light drinkers drank more than twice as much alcohol during simulated “happy hours” as they did during times without such promotions.
Some previous studies of price have used aggregated data of retail price that did not specifically take into account the unique marketing of the sale of alcohol surrounding the college campus.23, 26 Other studies used “perceived alcohol availability,” obtained directly from the respondents and possibly biased by the respondents' own drinking status.30, 31
The purpose of the present study was to describe the alcohol environment surrounding college campuses. Establishments selling alcohol for on-premise and off-premise consumption, alcohol promotions, price specials, and alcohol advertising were examined, as well as the effects of these environmental factors on students' drinking. Data from the 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), which gathered drinking information on more than 10,000 students nationwide, were analyzed. In addition, detailed information on prices, specials, and promotions at individual stores surrounding the 119 college campuses was obtained from independent observations.
Section snippets
Study design and population
The 2001 CAS surveyed students at 119 colleges who participated in each of the three previous CAS surveys. The participating schools were located in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Administrators at each participating school provided a list of 215 subjects, who were randomly selected from full-time undergraduate students enrolled during the 2000–2001 school year using the same procedure conducted in previous CAS surveys.
Starting in February 2001, questionnaires were mailed to 25,585
Data analysis
The analytic sample included 10,823 students at 118 colleges. One college for which data about on-premise establishments were not available was dropped. At 118 college sites, 1684 off-premise establishments and 830 on-premise establishments were observed. The percentages of the characteristics for on- and off-premise establishments were reported, and the average percentage of these characteristics for each college campus was calculated. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine the
Off-premise establishment characteristics and college binge-drinking rates
Among 1684 off-premise establishments surrounding 118 college campuses, about half of the establishments sold 24- or 30-can cases, almost a quarter of the off- premise establishments sold kegs, and about 5% of the off-premise establishments sold party balls (Table 1). The availability of large volumes of beer (24- or 30-can cases, party balls, or kegs) was associated with higher binge-drinking rates: Colleges with higher percentages of establishments selling large volumes of beer had higher
Conclusions
In examining the marketing of alcohol in the communities surrounding college campuses, it was found that alcohol specials, promotions, and advertisements were prevalent in the alcohol outlets around college campuses. Approximately three quarters of on-premise establishments offered specials on weekends, and almost half of the on-premise establishments and more than 60% of off-premise establishments offered some type of beer promotion. The results indicated that the “wet” alcohol environment
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We gratefully acknowledged the assistance of the Center for Survey Research of the University of Massachusetts–Boston and Dr. Anthony M. Roman for conducting the mail survey, Jeff Hansen for the preparation of the data, and Mark Seibring for editorial comments.
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2020, Addictive BehaviorsCitation Excerpt :Living on or near college campuses also is associated with higher alcohol outlet density and exposure to other pro-alcohol factors such as public drunkenness (Wechsler, Lee, Hall, Wagenaar, & Lee, 2002). Exposure to social, residential, and market promotion of alcohol use has been linked to college student binge drinking (Kuo, Wechsler, Greenberg, & Lee, 2003; Weitzmann, Nelson, & Wechsler, 2003). At least one study indicates that living situation may act as a mediator of associations between college attendance and alcohol-related outcomes.
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