Program May Reduce Drinking

Harvard researchers published a study last week concluding that cooperation between colleges and communities reduces binge drinking and drunk driving.

Three researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that schools that fully implemented the “A Matter of Degree” (AMOD) approach prevented drunk driving more effectively than institutions that used traditional alcohol policies that focus on educating individuals.

Many schools, including Harvard, currently use a social-norms approach, which attempts to reduce binge drinking by changing students’ perceptions of their peers’ drinking habits. This approach is based on the idea that students tend to think their peers drink more, and more often, than they actually do.

But Henry Wechsler, principal investigator for the AMOD study and an HSPH lecturer, said that his long-running College Alcohol Study, which spawned AMOD, has not found any evidence that such programs are effective by themselves. Instead, Wechsler’s study showed that a combination of policies that limit access to and consumption of alcohol better curb binge drinking and drunk driving on campuses.

The policies used in AMOD include: training for bartenders to help them better identify patrons who have drunken too much and identify fake driver’s licenses, requiring registration for keg purchasers, upholding stringent drinking-age laws, banning alcohol-related items from student bookstores, and expanding substance-free dorms.

From 1997 to 2001, students at the ten AMOD schools reported driving less frequently after drinking any alcohol, or having five or more drinks, than their counterparts at other colleges, Wechsler and his colleagues wrote in the December issue of Traffic Injury Prevention.

“The results support and confirm our contention that a comprehensive environmental program is really what will benefit colleges, the communities around them, and the young people within them,” said Elissa R. Weitzman, the co-principal investigator and director of the AMOD evaluation.

The HSPH researchers said the AMOD program differs significantly from other policies aimed at reducing drunk driving.

“The AMOD approach...does not simply attempt to change students’ perceptions of what others are doing,” Wechsler said.

Rather, he said, AMOD uses several policies in tandem to decrease both the demand for and supply of alcohol.

“We didn’t find any single policies that worked the best,” Wechsler said. “We found that having a number of policies that concentrate on this problem was the way to go.”

The study’s authors said they were aware of concerns that policies discouraging drinking on campus might cause drinkers to move farther away—and thus drink and drive more often.

“We actually found the opposite of that,” lead author Toben F. Nelson said.

Participants in the study were Florida State University, Georgia Tech, Lehigh University, Louisiana State University, University of Colorado, University of Delaware, University of Iowa, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, University of Vermont, and University of Wisconsin.

Director of Harvard Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services Ryan M. Travia did not return repeated requests for comment.

The AMOD program is funded through 2008 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. According to Nelson, HSPH researchers will continue evaluating the approach in the coming years.