Risk and protective factors for heavy episodic drinking among college students: Influence of mental health service use

Abstract

Objective: This study was designed to assess the relationship between mental health service utilization and heavy episodic drinking (HED) after controlling for demographic and student-level variables. Participants: A national sample of college undergraduate respondents to the 2017–2018 Healthy Minds Study survey (n = 67,427). Methods: Hierarchical logistic regression entering all variables on a single step. Subsequent logistic regression was used to assess interactions between mental health service variables and select demographic and student level variables. Results: Twenty-two demographic and student-level variables were associated with current HED (9 protective and 11 risk factors). Current mental health therapy was associated with a lower risk of current HED while mental health medication use in the past 12 months (but not currently) was associated with a higher risk of HED. Conclusions: Findings provide guidance to college/university community professionals given the responsibility of designing and implementing programs for mitigation of alcohol misuse on their campus.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• heavy episodic drinking
• binge drinking
• risk factors
• protective factors
• mental health
• service utilization

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 the United States and received approval from the Duke University Institutional Review Board.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.