University Prevention Program Reduces Binge Drinking, Drunk Driving

Four years after implementing a responsibility-focused prevention program, California State University revealed that rates of binge drinking, drunk driving, and alcohol-related traffic fatalities have declined substantially.

Despite massive budget cuts in 2001, CSU officials began to dedicate $1 million a year to reducing high-risk alcohol use, such as binge drinking and drunk driving, among their students.

The prevention program advocated responsibility rather than abstinence in alcohol use, using peer-led programs and a social norms education campaign to emphasize the effects of alcohol use on students' health, safety, and success, as well as the effects on those around them.

Now that the program has been in place for four years, survey results reveal reductions in risky alcohol-related behavior at many CSU schools. The Long Beach campus reported a 14.7 percent decrease in binge drinking and a 5.8 percent decrease in drunken driving, and the San Bernardino campus reported a 15.7 percent decrease in binge drinking. Alcohol-related traffic fatalities in surrounding communities are also lower than they were before the program began.

(8/19/2005)