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Drinking and driving among students in a Hispanic-serving university

Sunny Kim, PhD1, Mario De La Rosa, PhD2, and Christopher Rice, PhD2. (1) School of Public/ Center for Research on US Latinos HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse, Florida International University, HLS-575, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199, 305-348-7773, skim@fiu.edu, (2) Center for Research on U.S Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199

Objective: The goal of this study is to explore the association between the patterns of alcohol use and an episode of driving after alcohol use among students in a Hispanic serving institution located in a large urban area and serving mostly commuting students.

Methods: To investigate the prevalence of driving among students who used alcohol, this study included 829 students who used alcohol over the last 30 days and also drove a car. Frequent alcohol use was defined as drinking alcohol more than 20 days over the last 30 days. Heavy alcohol use was defined as five or more alcoholic drinks at a sitting

Results: During the 30 days preceding the survey, 45% of students drove after alcohol use and nearly 13% of students drove after heavy alcohol use. Specifically, 56% of males and 40% of females drove a car after alcohol use (Odds Ratio, 2.0). After heavy alcohol use, male students drove significantly more compared to female students (24.6% vs. 7.3%: Odds ratio, 4.2).

Graduate students drove more often after alcohol use compared to undergraduate students (50.5% vs. 40.7%: p £ 0.01). However, approximately the same proportion of graduate and undergraduate students drove after heavy alcohol use (14.1% vs.12.4%: p £ 0.47)

Conclusion: A significantly larger proportion of college students had driven a vehicle after drinking alcohol than that of the nation (45% vs. 27% nationwide). Contrary to our belief, driving with heavy alcohol use among graduate students was not different than undergraduate students.

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives