Increased risk for binge drinking among college students with disability who report sexual violence

Abstract

Objective

This study investigated binge drinking in college students with and without disabilities and sexual violence (SV). Participants: This analysis includes 2,113 college students recruited from campus health or counseling centers between 2015 and 2017, aged 18-24. Method: Multinomial logistic regression procedures were used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AOR) for past month binge drinking days (BDD). Results: Among students with disabilities, 68% endorsed SV, compared with 53% of those without disability. Disability was not significantly associated with BDD; SV was significantly associated with BDD (p < .0001). Students with SV, regardless of disability status, had 1.7- to 2.1-fold greater odds of having 4+ past month BDD. Conclusions: While disability alone is not a risk factor for binge drinking, novel findings include that students with disabilities binge drink at similarly high rates to their nondisabled peers, and are at elevated risk for SV, which is closely associated with binge drinking.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• binge drinking
• college students
• disability
• sexual violence

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States and received approval from the Human Research Protections Office of the University of Pittsburgh.

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32HD087162, PI: Miller) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA023260, PI: Miller).