Impact of Alcohol Use on School Performance of US High School Students

Purpose: To explore whether age of drinking onset and frequency of binge drinking by US high school students is associated with their school performance.

Method: Students aged 17 or older from the 2003 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) were asked whether their grades during the past 12 months were: mostly A's, B's, C's, D's or F's. A multinomial logistic regression model with proportional odds was used to model the association between school performance and alcohol use while controlling for gender, race/ethnicity and several other potential confounders.

Results: Relative to nondrinkers, students who started drinking before age 13 had an odds ratio of 1.46 (1.04-2.04) to obtain at least one letter grade lower, while those starting at 13 and later had an odds ratio of 1.05 (0.78-1.42). Compared to the students who never binge drank, these who binged 1-2 days for the past 30 days had an odds ratio of 1.17(0.97-1.42) to obtain lower grades, while those who binged 3 or more days had an odds ratio of 1.32 (1.05-1.64).

Conclusion: The strong association between alcohol use and school performance found among US high school students underscores the need to delay drinking onset and binge drinking in this age group.