Kraus Courtney L, Salazar Natasha C, Mitchell Jamie R, Florin Whitney D, Guenther Bob, Brady David, Swartzwelder Scott H, White Aaron M
Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2005 Sep;29(9):1672-6. doi: 10.1097/01.alc.0000179205.24180.4a.
Alcohol use by college students is commonly measured through the use of surveys. The validity of such data hinge on the assumption that students are aware of how much alcohol they actually consume. Recent studies call this assumption into question. Students tend to overestimate the appropriate sizes of standard drinks, suggesting that they might underestimate how much alcohol they consume. If this is true, then students' actual blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) should be higher than BACs estimated based on self-report data. The present study examined this issue
Breathalyzer readings and self-reported drinking data were collected from 152 college students during the fall of 2004. Estimated BACs were calculated by means of a standard formula, and the relation between actual and estimated BACs was examined. Factors contributing to discrepancies between the two values were identified
Estimated BAC levels were significantly higher, not lower, than breath BAC measures. The accuracy of estimated BACs decreased as the number of drinks and amount of time spent drinking increased. Being male and drinking only beer predicted greater accuracy of estimated BACs
Although laboratory data suggest that students underestimate how much they drink, the hypothesis was not supported by data collected in the field. It appears that students might actually overestimate rather than underestimate their levels of consumption when surveyed in the midst of a night of drinking. The findings corroborate observations made by other researchers and suggest that the findings of laboratory studies on college drinking do not necessarily extend to real-world settings.
大学生饮酒情况通常通过调查来衡量。此类数据的有效性取决于学生知晓自己实际饮酒量这一假设。近期研究对此假设提出质疑。学生往往高估标准饮品的合适容量，这表明他们可能低估了自己的饮酒量。如果真是如此，那么学生的实际血液酒精浓度（BAC）应高于根据自我报告数据估算的BAC。本研究探讨了这一问题。
在2004年秋季从152名大学生中收集了呼气酒精含量读数和自我报告的饮酒数据。通过标准公式计算估算的BAC，并检验实际BAC与估算BAC之间的关系。确定导致这两个值存在差异的因素。
估算的BAC水平显著高于呼气BAC测量值，而非更低。随着饮酒量和饮酒时间的增加，估算BAC的准确性下降。男性且只喝啤酒预示着估算BAC的准确性更高。
尽管实验室数据表明学生低估了自己的饮酒量，但该假设未得到实地收集数据的支持。在饮酒之夜接受调查时，学生似乎实际上高估而非低估了自己的饮酒量。这些发现证实了其他研究人员的观察结果，并表明关于大学生饮酒的实验室研究结果不一定能推广到现实世界的场景中。
