Tackling binge drinking in university students: a European public health challenge.

Background:
Binge drinking (BD) and behavioural risk factors among students in higher education remain to be investigated. The aim was to identify the prevalence and the factors associated with the frequent BD in university students in the University of Miskolc (M) in Hungary and Rouen (R) in France.
Methods:
French and Hungarian students in higher education completed an anonymous self-questionnaire, online in Rouen and paper in Miskolc Hungary. The questionnaire collected age, gender, housing, curricula, smoking, cannabis consumption, alcohol abuse problems (ADOSPA test), risk of eating disorders (SCOFF test), and perceived stress (Cohen score). Frequent BD was determined as a consumption of five or most alcoholic drinks on one occasion at least twice a month. A risk profile of consumers was conducted according to the consumption of alcohol and frequency of BD.
Results:
A total of 2116 students were included, 659 in M and 1457 in R; with respectively in M and R, a mean age of 20.8 (SD = 3.2) and 20.5 (SD = 2.9) and a sex ratio M: F of 0.29 and 0.58. Smoking prevalence was in M 22.6% and 22.3% in R, 12.8% of students in M and 39.8% in R were occasionally consumers of cannabis (p < 10-4). The prevalence of frequent BD was 15.9% in M and 13.8% in R, with significant difference by gender in the two universities; 29.8% and 25.1% in R presented an alcohol abuse problems (p = 0.03). After logistic regression, the frequent BD was significantly associated with the male sex (AOR=4.65, 95%CI=3.40-6.37), living in rental (AOR=1.69, 95%CI=1.21-2.42), smoking (AOR=5.59, 95%CI=3.83-8.08) and consuming cannabis (AOR=12.76, 95%CI=9.09-17.93). Students granting and living in couple presented a significant lower risk of frequent BD. Alcohol consumption was at risk for near 70% of students.
Conclusions:
BD patterns were quite similar in Hungary and France, it concerns one on six students, especially male students. BD appears as a frequent, whose consequences remain to be investigated.
Key messages:
• Our study highlights the prevalence of binge drinking, with similar behaviours in university students in Hungary and France.
• Specific target populations for public health interventions were identified.

@article{ladner2018tackling,
  title={Tackling binge drinking in university students: a European public health challenge.},
  author={Ladner, J and Luk{'a}cs, A and Sasv{'a}ri, P and Tavolacci, MP},
  journal={European Journal of Public Health},
  volume={28},
  number={suppl_4},
  pages={cky213--308},
  year={2018},
  publisher={Oxford University Press}
}