Student Drinking and Drinking-Related Deaths Are Increasing

The rates at which college students engage in binge drinking and drunk driving and die in alcohol-related incidents are all on the rise, according to data being released today in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reported that drinking-related accidental deaths among 18- to 24-year-old students have been edging up -- from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005. Further, they found that the proportion of students who reported recent binge drinking increased from 42 percent to 45 percent, and that the proportion who admitted to drinking and driving in the past year increased from 26.5 percent to 29 percent.