Demand for alcohol use among students at higher education institutions: an integrative literature review

ABSTRACT

Background

The high prevalence rates of alcohol use among students in higher education is a public health concern. Most interventions aim to reduce alcohol-related harm, while few demand reduction strategies exist.

Aims

The aim if this article was to review existing evidence in order to address alcohol abuse among students from a demand reduction approach.

Methods

The authors searched databases PubMed, CINAHL, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar. Articles were screened according to the following inclusion criteria: qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research, using a population of higher education students, published between 2010 and 2020, written in English. This article presents the findings of 26 sources that addressed the demand for alcohol and demand reduction among students.

Findings

Two themes emerged, namely, risk factors that increase the demand for alcohol use, and protective factors that reduce the demand for alcohol use among students. The subthemes revealed intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental risk and protective factors.

Conclusions

Reducing the demand for alcohol use among students is a critical health priority that requires a combination of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol use
• higher education
• students
• demand reduction

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgements for this publication

Authors’ contributions

AEW contributed to the review conception and design, collection of data, analysis, interpretation of the results, writing and revision of the manuscript. MM contributed to the review conception and design, interpretation of the results, writing and revision of the manuscript. All authors approved the submitted manuscript.

Data availability statement

All the data supporting the findings are in Tables 1 and 2 in the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.