An exploratory study of weight and alcohol consumption among college students

Objective: Determine if correlations exist between alcohol intake and body mass index for a college student population.Participants: The study targeted college students (n=148), ages 18-25 from a southeastern doctoral research university.Methods: Demographic, anthropometric, nutrition and food intake, and general health behavior data was collected by the dietetics students on each subject using verbal survey questioning. Basic anthropometric data was also collected on each subject.Results: In the populations studied, nearly 50% of the students fell into either the overweight or obese categories as defined by the World Health Organization (μBMI=26.49, with 26.1% BMI>30.0). The mean weekly alcoholic beverage intake for males was 8.75 (1449 kcal) and for females 4.96 (849 kcal). When subgroups were analyzed using Chi-square, students who drank beer were significantly more likely (x=.021, p<.05) to be categorized as overweight, which identifies a specific risk factor for this group.