University of Iowa sees decline in dangerous alcohol use

IOWA CITY — The University of Iowa plans to toughen at least two of its 2019 targets for reducing harmful alcohol consumption among students after meeting its goals — or coming close — two years early.

Findings made public Tuesday show 19 percent of respondents reported using alcohol on 10 or more days within the last 30, a decline from nearly 30 percent in 2012.

Additionally, the percentage of students who reported high-risk drinking — consuming five or more drinks on one occasion in the past two weeks — dropped from 64.1 in 2012 to 50.5 now.

The study was done using the National College Health Assessment framework. Last spring, it polled a sample of 622 UI undergraduates and had a response rate of more than 99 percent.

2017 National College Health Assessment by Gazetteonline on Scribd

This year's findings on alcohol use are the lowest in 25 years for the UI, which has endured a drinking reputation that has landed it atop or near the top of party-school lists in the Princeton Review and Playboy.

The 50.5 percent of UI students who reported high-risk drinking nears the target of 49 percent that the UI had hoped to achieve by 2019.

Richard Pratt / The Gazette'This year I think we're going to have that conversation, we get to move our target again,' said Tanya Villhauer, UI associate director for harm reduction and strategic initiatives.

The 19 percent of UI students who reported using alcohol on 10 or more days in the spring 2017 semester also beat the university's expectation of declining to 20 percent by 2019.

'That will be another target that we'll get to change,' Villhauer said.

The movement is welcome news for UI officials who have grappled with the problem for years, creating an Alcohol Harm Reduction Advisory Committee in 2009 and an Alcohol Harm Reduction Plan that's been revised twice and now is in its third iteration.

Still, UI students remain more likely than a national sample to use alcohol, engage in high-risk drinking and experience negative consequences from those behaviors, according to the national assessment.

Richard Pratt / The Gazette

And the report revealed some not-so-positive trends for UI, including a bump in cigarette and marijuana use.

Just over 16 percent of the UI students responding reported using cigarettes at least once in the last 30 days, up from 13.1 percent last year. Still, that's far less than the more than the 40 percent found in 1997.

The study also found an increase in e-cigarette use — from 5.8 percent in spring 2016 to 7.8 percent last spring — and more smokeless tobacco use, from 6.2 percent last year to 8.6 percent now.

Richard Pratt / The Gazette

Top stress factors for UI students, according to the study, are academics, intimate relationships, sleep difficulties and finances. Only 1 in 3 reported getting enough sleep to feel well-rested at least five days a week.

'If students slept more, a lot of their perceived mental health concerns would go down,' said UI Counseling Service Director Barry Schreier.

This year's assessment shows an increase in students who've been diagnosed or treated for at least one mental health condition in the last year: 19.4 percent of men, up from 17.5 percent last year; and 32 percent of women, up from 28.4 percent last year.

That is the highest level in the last eight years, and it jibes with a national escalation — although UI's numbers seem to be rising faster, Villhauer said.

An increase in university efforts to help, along with a decrease in the stigma of mental illness, could be behind the bump, according to Schreier. A rise in diagnostic options also could help explain it — with individuals who might not have fit into a diagnostic box before doing so today.

Today's students seem to be more comfortable with sharing their experiences and more willing to speak out about specific conditions, Schreier said. Better psychotropic drugs also are enabling more students who might have steered clear of college in the past to give it a chance now.

'These (data) seem to show more people are mentally ill than before,' Schreier said. 'But I'm not sure that's true. I would be careful not to draw that conclusion.'

In response to growing demand, the campus has dedicated resources for additional counselors, including several embedded in residence halls and specific programs and colleges. UI Counseling Service also is opening a new office in the Old Capitol Town Center the week of Aug. 14.

The university's mental health efforts seem to be paying off to some degree, according to the assessment. The report showed declines in students harming themselves, attempting suicide or seriously contemplating doing so.

'It is something we have focused on — suicide prevention and broader mental health outreach,' Schreier said. 'We are building up our first line of responders.'