Healthy Tailgating / Research and Health Effects
Alcohol Use at Football Tailgates
Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption Among College Students on Game Days
University of Texas Study - "Hook 'em Horns and Heavy Drinking: Alcohol Use and Collegiate Sports"
University of Minnesota BAC Study of Professional Game Day Tailgating
Texas Tech University Study on Analysis of Risk Management Policies for Tailgating Activities
The Pennsylvania State University study on Tailgating as a unique context for parental modeling on college student alcohol use
Indiana Prevention Resource Center - Fall, Football Tailgating and Playing Safe
Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption Among College Students on Game Days
- Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption (ERAC) is defined as consuming 10 or more drinks on game day for a male, and 8 or more for a female.
- These ritualistic events represent special circumstances for consuming alcohol; occasions where overindulgence seems more acceptable and even expected. This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as a "Time out" period, occurs where social control is relaxed and deviant acts are legitimized by an attitude of tolerance, a time out from the status quo. Time out events are associated with heavy drinking, illegal drinking, fighting, sexual activity, and overall impulsive behavior.
- The results reveal roughly half of the sample population report typically drinking on game day, consuming on average 7 alcoholic drinks over a 4-hour time period. Nearly 2 out of every 5 students engaged in heavy episodic drinking on game day, with females drinking at substantially lower rates than males.
University of Texas Study - "Hook 'em Horns and Heavy Drinking: Alcohol Use and Collegiate Sports"
- High-profile football game days were among the heaviest days for alcohol consumption, comparable to consumption on other well-known drinking days such as New Years Eve and Halloween weekend.
University of Minnesota BAC Study of Professional Game Day Tailgating
- 1 in 4 fans who tailgated reported having consumed 5 or more alcoholic drinks while tailgating (i.e., binge drank).
- Those who consume alcohol at tailgating parties 14 times more likely to be legally drunk .
- Monday night football attendees had over 3 times the odds of having a mid-range BAC than attendees at all other games
- On average there may be approximately 5,000 fans leaving an NFL event above the BAC legal limit for driving
Texas Tech University Study on Analysis of Risk Management Policies for Tailgating Activities
- A total of 68 (69%) of the 98 institutions were found to possess risk management strategies for tailgating activities.
- Forty-six (68%) respondents indicated that alcohol consumption-related tailgating policies existed.
The Pennsylvania State University study on Tailgating as a unique context for parental modeling on college student alcohol use
- Approximately 27% of mothers and 48% of fathers were perceived as engaging in Heavy Episodic Drinking (HED) in the past year, with ∼19% and ∼31%, respectively, perceived as having engaged in this behavior between 1 and 11 times in the past year.
- 42% of students reported that their parents tailgated, 38% reported that their parents drank at tailgates, and 21% reported that their parents got drunk at tailgates
- Higher parental HED and drunkenness at tailgates were associated with higher student drinking, drunkenness, and negative consequences
Indiana Prevention Resource Center - Fall, Football Tailgating and Playing Safe
- 90% of college students sampled by University of Toledo study of football home games had measurable alcohol in their blood.
- average BAC was .061 with 20% being greater than or equal to 0.08% (legally intoxicated).
Alcohol Use Among College Students
Emerging adult college students are among the heaviest drinking demographic groups in the U.S.
College student drinking: Characteristics and variability
Alcohol Consumption during football tailgating
Emerging adult college students are among the heaviest drinking demographic groups in the U.S.
- Those who attend college consume considerably more alcohol than their non-college peers.
- 48.8% of college students were high-risk drinkers - defined as 5 or more drinks in 1 sitting at least once during the 2 weeks prior to survey
- Researchers have documented that heavy drinking is associated with campuses that have athletic programs.
College student drinking: Characteristics and variability
- drinking varied with time of year and was higher at both the start and end of the academic year
- drinking varied with day of the week with students drinking four times as much on the weekends as during the week
- drinking varied with the event calendar, with consumption at its lowest during exam periods and highest during holidays and special events
- Community events have been associated with heavy drinking, even among students who do not ordinarily report heavy drinking
Alcohol Consumption during football tailgating
- There is indirect evidence that suggests that tailgating is associated with heavy drinking among college students
- Following a beer ban at the University of Colorado at Boulder, significant decreases were observed in the number of ejections, arrests, assaults, and student referrals to judicial affairs
- Sports fans were more likely to drink, drank more heavily, and experienced more alcohol-related problems than non-sports fans in a samply of nearly 12,000 U.S. college students
Drinking and Driving Among College Students
1) About 3 out of 10 college students drove after drinking
2) Drinking and driving increases in direct proportion to binge drinking (chart at right).
4) Alcohol-related traffic fatality rates are nearly twice as great for 18-, 19- and 20-year olds as for the population over 21.
Sources: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), CORE Institute Alcohol and College Students 101 Fact Sheet; 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS).
Los Angeles County Data
U.S. College Students (Alcohol-Related Deaths)
National Data (Binge Drinking, Health Effects and Consequences)
1) About 3 out of 10 college students drove after drinking
2) Drinking and driving increases in direct proportion to binge drinking (chart at right).
- 58% of frequent binge drinkers
- 40% of occasional binge drinkers
- 19% of non-binge drinkers reported they drove after drinking.
4) Alcohol-related traffic fatality rates are nearly twice as great for 18-, 19- and 20-year olds as for the population over 21.
Sources: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), CORE Institute Alcohol and College Students 101 Fact Sheet; 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS).
Los Angeles County Data
- Excessive alcohol consumption is the 2nd leading cause of premature death and disability in Los Angeles County.
- Each year about 2,500 people in Los Angeles County die from an alcohol-related cause, with a loss of an estimated 78,000 years of life. This tragic loss of life costs the region an estimated $10.8 billion annually, or roughly $1,000 for every resident. Alcohol related illness also accounted for 27,424 hospitalizations in one year in LA County.
- In 2008, there were 258 alcohol-involved fatal collisions in Los Angeles County and 4,832 alcohol-involved injury collisions.
U.S. College Students (Alcohol-Related Deaths)
- About 1,700 college students die per year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, the majority in motor vehicle crashes.
National Data (Binge Drinking, Health Effects and Consequences)
- Excessive alcohol use is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States
- 79,000 deaths and 2.3 million Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) in the US each year
- 1 in 6 US adults - more than 38 million - binge drink, about 4 times a month. (binge drinking means men drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a short period of time or women drinking 4 or more within a short period of time.)
- The estimated cost to the national economy of deaths related to excessive alcohol consumption was $223.5 billion in 2006.
- Age group with the most binge drinkers: 18-34 years.
- Age group that binge drinks the most: 65+ years
- Income group with the most binge drinkers: $75,000+
- Income group that binge drinks the most often and drinks the most per binge: less than $25,000
- Most alcohol-impaired drivers binge drink
- Most people who binge drink are not alcohol dependent or alcoholics.
- More than half of the alcohol adults drink is while binge drinking. More than 90% of the alcohol youth drink is while binge drinking.
- Drinking too much contributes to over 54 different injuries and diseases, including car crashes, violence and sexually-transmitted diseases.
Additional Resources, References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Alcohol and Public Health
- CDC Vital Signs - Binge Drinking - National Problem, Local Solutions
- Los Angeles County Department of Public Health - Substance Abuse Prevention and Control
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Underage Drinking