Consequences of Low Risk and Hazardous Alcohol Consumption among University Students in Australia and Implications for Health Promotion Interventions

Background: Hazardous alcohol consumption and associated harms are high among young uni-versity students. The university environment is conducive to excessive alcohol consumption with studies finding young university students to drink alcohol at higher levels than their non-univer-sity peers. Methods: A random sample of 18- 24-year-old undergraduate, internal university stu-dents completed a survey (n = 2465) to investigate differences in self-reported personal, second-hand and witnessed alcohol-related harms, alcohol expectancies, pre-loading, and friends ’ alcohol consumption between low risk and hazardous drinkers. Univariate and multivariate analyses are reported. Results: Almost 40 % of students who had consumed alcohol in the past year reported drinking at hazardous levels. Univariate analyses found students who reported hazardous drink-ing reported significantly higher scores relating to experienced, second-hand, witnessed and aca-demic problems compared to low risk drinkers. Hazardous drinkers were also more likely t