Binge Drinking Rates Dropping on College Campuses

Study also shows rates rising for young adults who are not in school

After years of increases in binge drinking on college campuses, new research shows those rates have now dropped. Unfortunately, the reverse held true for young adults who did not go to college.

Between 1999 and 2005, binge drinking among college students jumped from 37 percent to 45 percent. But according to a HealthDay report, that trend reversed itself after 2005, landing back at 37 percent by 2014 The results come from an analysis done by the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Meanwhile, binge drinking rates among those who were not enrolled in college increased from 36 percent to 40 percent between 1999 and 2014.

Binge drinking is defined as a pattern of excessive consumption that usually involves imbibing four drinks (among women) or five drinks (among men) within a two-hour period.

To get a handle on binge drinking trends among young Americans, the investigators culled data collected by a wide swath of government agencies.

The team found that alcohol-impaired driving among college students declined from 29 percent in 2005 to 17 percent in 2014.

Similarly, alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths and traffic deaths fell nearly 30 percent and 43 percent, respectively, among the same age group between 1998 and 2014.

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