High-risk versus low-risk football game weekends: differences in problem drinking and alcohol-related consequences on college campuses in the United States.

UNLABELLED: Collegiate football games provide multiple social opportunities for alcohol use by students over the course of the weekend. The goal of this study was to examine alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences on football game weekends to determine differences based on characteristics of the game.

METHODS: A random sample of students from two large, public universities in the United States completed a survey on the Sunday-Friday following a high-risk weekend (HRW, important, home game) and low-risk weekend (LRW, no home game or game of importance) (N = 3,238 total). The survey measured the number of days students drank (0-3) and got drunk (0-3) over the weekend and whether 1+ consequences were experienced due to one's own drinking (yes/no) and due to others' drinking (yes/no).

RESULTS: Ordinal logistic regression analyses revealed greater odds of drinking alcohol (OR = 1.70, CI = 1.46-1.97) and getting drunk (OR = 1.49, CI = 1.27-1.76) on HRW versus LRW. Logistic regression analyses revealed greater odds of experiencing 1+ consequences as a result of one's own drinking (OR = 1.38, CI = 1.16-1.63) and experiencing 1+ consequences as a result of others' drinking (OR = 1.52, CI = 1.30-1.78) on HRW versus LRW.

DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that additional prevention efforts aimed at reducing risky drinking are needed over HRW and have implications for campus administrators, law enforcement, and substance abuse program coordinators.