Blood Breathe Alcohol
This paper talks about the increased level of alcohol consumption in the University amongst the students and other college fans, especially during the game days compared to other social days. A game day here refers to the day on a campus football events (Glassman, Wercb, Jobli, & Bain, 2007; Nelson &Wechsler, 2002; Prevention File, 2008). This article talked about the problems that the university officials are facing while dealing with the issue of alcoholism. It sufficiently addressed the preventive measures put in place, like the limitation of tailgating to three hours before the start of the game and the ban of selling alcohol locally. Moreover, lastly, the articles also compared the rate of alcoholism between the college fans and the students during the game day before and after and also provide a solution to the problems caused by alcoholism.
According to the researchers from National institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism, and the Core Alcohol and Other Drug Survey national data sample (2006), 84% of college students report using alcohol at least once and unintentional death in 2005. Even the government study shows that, a third of the college student drives under the influence of alcoholic in 1998 and a significant increase of 9% from 1998 to 2005. Because of this increment of alcohol abuse and alcohol use in the university, a hot public debate has been raised (Hingson, Zha and Weitzman, 2009).
Alcohol consumption on game day represents a certain problematic issue for the college officials. During game day, the rate of drinking increases compared to other social occasions among the students. It is found that, a certain football college game result in more alcohol consumption than others including homecoming, interstate rivals and high profile games such as bowl games and championships (Neigbbors, Oster-Aaland, & Bergstrom, 2006; Neal & Fromme, 2007).
Some universities implemented protective health policies to discourage students and fans from consuming alcohol in excess. For example, a study published in 2005, 96% of colleges indicated that their football department has a policy concerning alcohol at the football events. 71% of surveyed universities reported designating tailgating area on game day, unfortunately only 10% kept that zone alcohol free. Other universities restrict the time allowed to tailgate prior to the football game. And lastly the ban of the sales of the alcoholic beverages during the sporting day
Some of the reasons as per why the students and fans drink more alcohol during game day are, misperceived norms concerning alcohol use in conjunction with tailgating, students also drink excessively just to fit with their peers to meet falsely perceived norms.
Researchers normally evaluate alcohol consumption rate by asking contestant to report concentration rate specific timeframe. Sometimes, researchers also assess alcohol rate by estimating blood alcohol content (Ebac). However, both the methods have an inherent limitation because of self reported data. In other words, participants may exaggerate or intentionally underreport their consumption levels. Therefore, the use of the breathalyzer is found to be at least of help, it measuring of the blood breath concentration.
The strength of this article is seen in the outcome of the first endeavor meant to measure the college football fan`s BrAc rate for the entire season. The result shows that a large majority of the fans takes alcohol when the tailgate to the extent that prohibits them from driving. Moreover, also the emphasis of the future research to assess on whether to restrict alcohol consumption for a limited period. The weakness of this article is based on the false research done at random to non alcoholic fans and students, therefore, the result might not be the truth.
In my opinion, this paper had clearly stated when and where exactly the students and the college fans get involved in alcohol abuse and use, and also how the researchers came up with the real figure of culprits. So, it is upon the college management to look at these issues and address them. Even though, the paper has helped us in addressing alcoholism issues in colleges, it has not talked of ways of discouraging the alcoholic problems. For example, it has not addressed such matters as student expulsion from the college if found drunk, involving the police and opening of the rehabilitation centre within the colleges for the addicted drunkard students. Furthermore, with all the information, no action that has been done to the fans and students found consuming alcohol.
References
Glassman, T., Werch, C, Jobli, E., & Bian, H. (2007). Alcohol related fan behavior on college football game day. Journal of American College Health, 56(3), 255-260.
Neighbors, C, Oster-Aaland, L., & Bergstrom, R. L. (2006).Event-and context-specific normative misperceptions and high risk drinking: 21st birthday celebrations and football tailgating. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(2), 282-289.
Nelson, T. F., & Wechsler, H. (2002). School spirits: alcohol and Collegiate sports fans. Addictive Behaviors, 28, 1-11.
