Abstract

ARRIETA VERGARA, Katherine M. Pathological alcohol consumption amongst students from the University of Cartagena, 2008. Rev. salud pública [online]. 2009, vol.11, n.6, pp.878-886. ISSN 0124-0064.

Objective Determining the frequency of pathological alcohol consumption and characterising the variables related to such consumption in students taking daytime programmes at the University of Cartagena. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional design was used; 1,031 students from daytime programmes at the University of Cartagena participated in it (480 males and 551 females). They were selected by randomly sampling responses to a questionnaire which included the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT). Stata 9.1 software was used for single variable analysis. Results 34.5 % of the students displayed a high risk of consumption, mainly males (41.1 %). Total consumption was 83.6 %, median age for the most frequent consumption was 15/16 (38 %), beer being the preferred drink (65 %). Reported problems included alcohol poisoning (68 %), physical ailments (58 %), light headedness (30 %), having sex without protection (19 %) and family problems (12 %). Conclusions Alcohol consumption amongst college students was high, as was their tendency to consume dangerous quantities, mainly males having low-consumption characteristics (once a month or less) but consuming large amounts (5 drinks or more) on such occasions.

Keywords : Drinking alcohol; dependency; student; Colombia.

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