Risky behaviors start before college, study says

Despite myths about youths "running wild" when they begin university life, Utah students' choices about safe or risky behavior usually are made before their college years.

And parents should pay close attention when students are young, trying to influence them toward making smart choices.

Those are the feelings of Dr. Jim Davis, director of student health and wellness at Utah State University, Logan, who is also an emergency room physician at Logan Regional Hospital. He was commenting on latest results from USU's portion of the Utah Higher Education Health Behavior Survey, conducted every two years.

The figures show USU's students are more careful about alcohol and drugs than the typical American college students, based on national figures from the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, reported by the Center for Disease Control.

• Recent drinking. Nationally, 45 percent of youths drank alcohol in the past month, more than a sip. At USU, 13.4 percent of men students and 11 percent of women students drank in the past month.

• Binge drinking, which refers to drinking five or more drinks in a sitting, or having at least three drinks a day for three days in a row. Nationally, 28 percent reported heavy drinking in the past month. For USU, the figures are 8.2 percent for men and 5 percent for women.

What's especially revealing for Davis is that there's little change in drinking habits over the college years among USU students. About 22.1 percent of entering freshmen say they have had a drink in the past year amounting to more than a sip.

"That number doesn't change greatly over the four years they're here," he said.

This indicates that if students are going to drink, they made that decision "prior to coming to school" at the university.

"We think our data's pretty strong, because the numbers stay steady," he added. "We don't think we're losing all of the drinkers to flunking out or dropping out" of school.

Marijuana use shows that 11.2 percent of USU's incoming freshmen used the illegal drug. By senior year, USU's number is down to 7.6 percent.

Why the decrease? "Maybe some of those people who use that particular substance are unsuccessful in their education," he said. The figures also support the argument that marijuana smoking is not a habit picked up at the university level.