Binge drinking call to action

Kypros Kypri
Kypros Kypri
More action by Government and by the Dunedin City Council is needed to counter binge drinking problems involving Dunedin tertiary students, says Dr Kypros Kypri, a leading researcher into drinking and social issues.

Dr Kypri, a University of Otago graduate who is a senior research fellow at the University of Newcastle, in Australia, and a research associate with Otago's Injury Prevention Research Unit, yesterday gave an open lecture at Otago University, reflecting on a decade of research on New Zealand tertiary student drinking.

The lecture explored what could be learned "as a staff and community working with students at Otago on hazardous drinking and its prevention".

In the first national study of its kind to be carried out in New Zealand, 2548 students from five universities, including Otago, completed an online survey in April and May 2005, detailing their drinking habits and how drinking had affected their lives.

Of the total, 37% said they had indulged in binge drinking at least once in the previous seven days.

Binge drinking was defined as six or more standard drinks for men, and four or more for women.

Dr Kypri was the lead author in the study, which was published early this year in an international alcohol research journal.

Binge drinking was linked, in some cases, to risky behaviour, including drink-driving, and to having unprotected sex and sexual encounters which were later regretted.

Such excessive drinking was "definitely not unique" in Dunedin and was also a significant problem at New Zealand's other universities, he said in an interview.

It was wrong to simply blame individual tertiary students.

The University of Otago, which previously had not taken the issues seriously enough and had not done enough, had in recent years taken commendable steps by establishing a new Code of Conduct and by using Campus Watch staff to improve security in the campus area.

More action was now also needed by the Government, by the Dunedin City Council and by the community to create a safer and more positive environment for young people coming to Dunedin to study, and to counter the aggressive promotion of alcohol to students.

"We've got to take a duty of care as a community. We've created a night-time economy which we can't control," he said.

Ready access to alcohol, in terms of the nearby location and lengthy operating hours of some liquor outlets, and the high-profile promotion of alcohol, including liquor sponsorship, all contributed to excessive drinking, he said.

There was scope for the Government to do more to control the national advertising of alcohol, and, by changing the law, to make it easier for local authorities to control alcohol sales.

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