142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

308365
Drinking like an adult? Trajectories of alcohol consumption before and after college graduation

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 11:30 AM - 11:50 AM

Amelia M. Arria, PhD , Center on Young Adult Health and Development/Dept of Behavioral and Community Health, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Kimberly Caldeira, MS , Center on Young Adult Health and Development, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD
Kathryn B. Vincent, MA , Center on Young Adult Health and Development, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD
Kevin O'Grady, PhD , Center on Young Adult Health and Development/Dept of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
College students who engage in high-risk drinking patterns are thought to “age out” of these patterns as they transition to adult roles. College graduation is an important milestone demarcating this transition. This longitudinal study investigated the impact of the sentinel event of college graduation among a cohort of 1,253 young adults originally recruited as first-year college students for a study of health-risk behaviors. Standard measures of alcohol consumption were gathered during eight annual personal interviews (76% to 91% followed up annually). Graduation dates were culled from administrative data from the home university (85%) and supplemented with self-report data for individuals graduating from other institutions (5%). A series of spline models, in which separate trajectories were modeled before and after the “knot” of college graduation, were fit to eight annual observations of alcohol use frequency (past-year) and quantity (typical number of drinks/day). Alcohol use frequency exhibited a linearly increasing trajectory pre-graduation, followed by a quadratic trajectory post-graduation with a slight decrease and subsequent rebound to pre-graduation levels. In contrast, quantity decreased linearly throughout the eight-year period. Findings confirm that, on average, high-quantity drinking characterizes the college years, but also suggest that high-frequency drinking patterns that develop during college are likely to persist for several years post-graduation, albeit in lower quantities. Recent college graduates might be an important intervention target. Additional research on subgroup variation (e.g., gender) might provide important information about individual differences in alcohol use trajectories during and after college.

Learning Areas:

Epidemiology
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe the longitudinal changes in alcohol use frequency in relation to college graduation. Articulate the importance of college graduation as a milestone marking changes in drinking patterns. Describe the public health significance of high-risk drinking patterns before and after college graduation.

Keyword(s): Epidemiology, Public Health Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the PI of multiple federally funded grants focusing on the epidemiology of alcohol and other substance use. Among my scientific interests has been alcohol consumption among college students and young adults.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.