136 JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL / MARCH 2002 Magnitude of Alcohol-Related Mortality and Morbidity among U.S. College Students Ages 18-24

ABSTRACT. Objective: This report estimates the numbers of 18-24 year old United States college students who annually experience alcohol-related deaths, injuries and other health problems. Method: We examined traf-fic and unintentional injury deaths in 1998 reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Centers for Disease Con-trol (CDC). We also examined results of national coroner studies, De-partment of Education college enrollment data, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), the CDC National College Health Risk Behavior Survey and the Harvard School of Public Health Col-lege Alcohol Survey (CAS). All survey participants were ages 18-24: 6,930 college and 12,394 noncollege respondents in the NHSDA sur-vey; 3,077 college students in the CDC survey; and 12,217 full-time 4-year college students in the CAS. Based on the number and proportion of 18-24 year olds enrolled in college, data on alcohol involvement in injury deaths among 18-24 year olds and survey responses, we calcu