Alcohol Harms over a Period of Alcohol Policy Reform: Surveys of New Zealand College Residents in 2004 and 2014

Abstract

Background: We estimated the change in the prevalence of harms attributed by students to their drinking and to others’ drinking, over a decade of concerted effort by university authorities to reduce antisocial behaviour and improve student safety. Interventions included a security and liaison service, a stricter code of conduct, challenges to liquor license applications near campus, and a ban on alcohol advertising. Methods: We used a pre-post design adjusting for population changes. We invited all students residing in colleges of a New Zealand University to complete web surveys in 2004 and 2014, using identical methods. We estimated change in the 4-week prevalence of 15 problems and harms among drinkers, and nine harms from others’ drinking among all respondents. We adjusted for differences in sample sociodemographic characteristics between surveys. Results: Among drinkers there were reductions in several harms, the largest being in acts of vandalism (7.1% to 2.7%), theft (11% to 4.5%), and physical aggression (10% to 5.3%). Among all respondents (including non-drinkers), there were reductions in unwanted sexual advances (14% to 8.9%) and being the victim of sexual assault (1.0% to 0.4%). Conclusion: Alcohol-related harm, including the most serious outcomes, decreased substantially among college residents in this period of alcohol policy reform. In conjunction with evidence of reduced drinking to intoxication in this population, the findings suggest that strategies to reduce the availability and promotion of alcohol on and near campus can substantially reduce the incidence of health and social harms.

Do Changes to the Alcohol Retail Environment Reduce Interpersonal Violence?

“…As expected, the majority of alcohol retail policies were associated with reductions in intentional injuries (see Table 1 for a summary of quantitative study results). Decreased offand on-premise alcohol outlet densities or farther proximity to the nearest outlet were consistently associated with reductions in assaults, IPV, and sexual assault, though no Decreased [50] Decreased [51] Decreased [54] study found an association with homicides [6 Examining results by violence type, assaults, IPV, and sexual assault or rape were associated with almost every single alcohol environment policy investigated across studies (see Table 1). Homicide, as well as aggregate measures (e.g., combinations of violent crimes), had more mixed results, with decreases observed for increased alcohol taxes, absence of visible alcohol advertisement, and combination alcohol retail environment scores but not for other alcohol environment exposures.…”

Associations between Gender Expression, Protective Coping Strategies, Alcohol Saliency, and High-Risk Alcohol Use in Post-Secondary Students at Two Canadian Universities

“…In parallel, environmental-level strategies target the campus community and student body. These are designed to change the campus and community environments where student drinking occurs (e.g., reducing alcohol availability [53,54], and community liaison and security services to reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol-related aggression [55]). However, most of the available studies have pointed to a need to explore gender and social moderators for the efficacy of these interventions.…”

Special Issue: Alcohol Policy and Public Health—Contributing to the Global Debate on Accelerating Action on Alcohol

“…Six of the studies [8,15,17,[20][21][22] evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention. Of these, two [8,20] found showed a meaningful effect, with only one [8], looking at strategies to reduce the availability and promotion of alcohol on or near university campuses, finding a statistically significant effect. Two studies of the night-time environment in Australia did not find significant effects.…”