HHS HealthBeat (March 2, 2012)

The host drinks the most

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

College parties often involve heavy drinking, and one study finds that sometimes the host drinks the most. Ohio State University researcher Cynthia Buettner saw this in an online survey of close to 3,800 students who had hosted or attended parties over two academic years.

Buettner says guests at parties in residence halls or off-campus typically reported about seven drinks. But off-campus hosts reported around nine drinks. On-campus hosts reported around four.

Buettner advises hosts:

"When you drink heavily, that means that you’re not in a state where you can control what happens at your party, in terms of who shows up, and what sort of behavior’s OK."  (8 seconds) 

The study in the journal Addictive Behaviors was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: March 2, 2012