University of Iowa health assessment shows rise in energy drinks, vaping

IOWA CITY — Mirroring the energy-drink tide swelling across the country of late, a University of Iowa health assessment this year indicated undergraduate and graduate consumption of the caffeine-boosted beverages is surging — even past national averages, which also are on the rise.

Among a sample of 1,882 UI undergraduate students who completed a National College Health Assessment in the spring, 21 percent said they had consumed energy drinks or shots on at least five days in the last month — more than double the 9 percent who said so in 2021 and nearly double the 12 percent of undergraduates who said so nationally, according to a most recent fall 2022 survey.

UI graduate students also reported more energy-drink consumption in the most recent survey, conducted between late February and mid-March, with 12 percent reporting drinking five or more in the last month, compared with 6 percent in 2021.

Those findings are among a handful of notable health-assessment differences since 2021 — the last time UI conducted the survey, which assesses a wide array of health-related behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs.

UI undergraduate respondents in the spring also reported more high-risk drinking, vaping, and cigarette smoking than in 2021 — although UI Student Wellness Associate Director Trisha Welter warned about external social and environmental differences between the two years potentially affecting responses.

“Spring 2021 was a very different time than spring 2023,” Welter said. “Many, many students were not taking any in-person classes or even living in the Iowa City area (many living at home with families). I imagine this could have had impacts on all topics the survey addressed, including high-risk behaviors like high-risk drinking, cigarette use, e-cigarette use and energy drink consumption.”

'Terrible sleeping habits’

Welter said energy drink consumption can affect a range of health outcomes, “including a student’s ability to fall asleep, total sleep, and sleep quality, all of which can impact academic performance, mood, a variety of mental health symptoms, and academic performance.”

At 76 percent, more than three-quarters of UI undergraduate respondents earlier this year said they feel tired or sleepy three or more days a week, up slightly from 73 percent in 2021.

Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa also participate in National College Health Assessments — with UNI last doing so in spring 2022 and Iowa State participating last in fall 2021.

UNI will conduct its next assessment in the upcoming spring, and “We’ll conduct the survey again this fall,” ISU spokesman Angie Hunt said.

Several ISU students who spoke with The Gazette said they've seen and personally experienced the spike in energy drink use, with ISU sophomore Aydan Rickels saying they often make more sense than coffee from a cost-benefit perspective.

“I know coffee is a healthier option, but energy drinks tend to have more caffeine, are cheaper, and more convenient,” said Rickels, 19. “I just went to Starbucks with my brother last night and for one coffee and a refresher, it cost just over $11. Over the summer, I could walk into my hometown Casey’s and buy two Bang energy drinks for $5.”

Rickels said energy drinks were helpful over the summer, when he’s working two jobs, and in the school year — like during finals. Plus, he said, there are so many more options.

“As a kid there were only four energy drinks that were popular: Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, and 5-hour energy,” he said. “Now not only do we still have those, but we also have Reign, Bang, Ghostface, C4, Prime, Kickstart, Surge, and NOS, just to name a few.”

ISU junior Starla Lane said she’s been trying to “quit energy drinks entirely” since she started drinking them in 2020, when she was attending Northwest Iowa Community College during the pandemic.

“Because my classes were online, I could do them whenever I wanted,” she said. “Energy drinks not only allowed me to do work at night, but also gave me the motivation to do so. Sitting alone in a room for two years sort of destroys your motivation, so a hit of caffeine becomes almost necessary.”

But there were a lot of down sides too, Lane said. At her peak consumption, she was drinking one to three a day and experiencing “massive headaches and drops in mood/motivation.”

“The worst part of ingesting this much caffeine all the time was the flipped sleep schedule it helped create,” she said. “I already had a weird sleep schedule, because my classes were online and I chose to do them at night. But energy drinks solidified my terrible sleeping habits.”

Once she started at Iowa State, Lane said, the caffeine wasn’t giving her the same boost it once did — compelling her to try to quit. But the accessibility makes that hard, she said.

“At ISU, I can get them very easily from the cafe in the Design building, the place I spend the most time,” she said. “Because my classes are three hours long, it’s very tempting to grab an energy drink during our mid-class break.”

Vaping on the rise

The health assessments look at use and abuse across a range of substances, and the recent UI survey found 30 percent of UI undergraduate respondents used at least one nicotine product in the last three months, up from 25.6 percent in 2021. Breaking down that use, 26 percent reported using e-cigarettes or some kind of vape product in the last three months, up from 22 percent in 2021.

Although cigarette use for years was on the decline, 11 percent of UI undergrads this year reported using cigarettes in the last three months, up from 8 percent in 2021.

Regarding alcohol use — an issue that for years has plagued UI, consistently rated among the top party schools in the country, including on several lists this year — high-risk drinking is on the rise, according to the health assessment.

Defining high-risk drinking as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women, 40 percent of UI undergraduate respondents reported at least one instance of high-risk drinking in the last two weeks — up from 33 percent in 2021.

Among just those who reported alcohol use in that two weeks, 68 percent reported high-risk drinking in 2023, compared with 58 percent in 2021.

More than 46 percent this year said they’ve used a fake ID, up from 34 percent in 2021; 53 percent reported getting drunk the last time they drank, up from 46 percent; and 55 percent reported drinking just to get drunk the last time they drank, up from 47 percent.

Generally speaking, according to the report, UI students are “more likely to have used alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco/nicotine in the last three months” and “more likely to report high-risk drinking,” compared to a spring 2022 national sample of 54,204 undergraduate students from 129 schools.

The National College Health Assessment’s more recent survey in fall 2022 found 20 percent used a tobacco product in the last three months, compared with the rising 30 percent of UI undergraduate respondents.

Use of vaping devices for cannabis also has surged in recent years, contributing to increases in use of both — with lifetime cannabis vaping surging from 14.4 percent in 2017 to 34.6 percent in 2020 among young adults nationally, according to 2022 research published in the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine.

“Notably, the doubling of past 30-day cannabis vaping observed among young adults (college students) from 2017 to 2018 was among the largest one-year increase in any substance use ever recorded in the history of (the Monitoring the Future national survey),” according to the research.

The 2023 UI assessment didn’t break down how vaping products were used — only showing a rise in vaping, nicotine use, and cannabis use — from 23 percent in the last 30 days in 2021 to 27 percent earlier this year.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com