Departments of Physiology and
1 Psycho-sociology and IFR Marey 107, Faculty of Sport Sciences Marseilles, University of the Mediterranean, Marseilles and
2 Regional Centre for Disease Control of South-Eastern France, Inserm U379, Marseilles, France
(Received 7 March 2003; first review notified 6 April 2003; in revised form 9 May 2003; accepted 13 May 2003)
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ABSTRACT |
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INTRODUCTION |
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Some studies found that male students drank more alcohol more often, and became intoxicated more frequently, than female students (Nyström et al., 1993; Roncone et al., 1996
; OMalley and Johnston, 2002
). On the other hand, in a UK survey of 244 medical students (Granville-Chapman et al., 2001
), in the second year female students drank as much as male students. Based on these contradictory results, which may reflect different cultural contexts and discrepancies in the terms employed to describe drinking behaviour, we wanted to test for the presence of a gender effect on alcohol consumption and intoxication among French sport university students. We focused on this population due to the controversial relation between participation in sports and alcohol use. Some studies indicate less alcohol consumption among subjects involved in sports (Thorlindsson, 1989
; Donato et al., 1994
) whereas others indicate the opposite (Faulkner and Slaterry, 1990
), especially among male students (Aaron et al., 1995
). It is important to evaluate the pattern of alcohol use among young adults studying sports sciences, as most of them will become teachers, managers or coaches, and perhaps role models for future generations of young people.
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SUBJECTS AND METHODS |
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This questionnaire was administered between November and December 2002, unannounced, to a sample of 915 university students from three sport sciences departments in southern France: Marseilles (n = 310), Montpellier (n = 420) and Perpignan (n = 185). Only second- and third-year students were included in our study. First-year students were excluded because about 65% of them do not pass the end-of-year exams; thus, they may not be representative of students in sports science. Fourth-year students were excluded either because some may be influenced by courses on addiction, doping and drug abuse (in Marseilles and Montpellier). Because students were questioned on behaviours that are subject to societal disapproval (or are even illegal), it was made clear to them that the survey was anonymous and strictly confidential, with no right or wrong answers. Students were also free to refuse to participate in the survey. Approximately 2530 subjects participated in each session, which lasted about 20 min. Subjects sat one per table, each table separated from the others by at least 2 m in all directions. An investigator was always present to ensure absence of communication between subjects. At the end of the session, the individual questionnaires were placed in a common ballot box.
The relations between categorical variables were examined using Pearsons 2, which tested the independence hypothesis between either sex or level of competitive sport and alcohol use. Data analysis was carried out with SPSS software, version 10.1 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
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RESULTS |
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Frequency of alcohol consumption
Table 1 indicates that there is a gender difference in the consumption of beer (P < 0.001), wine (P < 0.001) and spirits (P < 0.001). For instance, 62% of male and 33% of female students reported drinking beer at least once a month. Male students were also more likely than female students to report drinking wine more than once a month (40.8 vs. 28.4%, respectively). Similar observations applied to consumption of spirits (63.9 vs 41.5% for male and female students, respectively).
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DISCUSSION |
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Consistent with the results of previous studies (OMalley and Johnston, 2002; Lorente and Grélot, 2003
), male gender was strongly associated with weekly alcohol use among young adult athletes. Like Nyström et al. (1993)
, we observed a significant relationship between frequency of episodes of intoxication and gender. Specifically, men were more likely to be intoxicated more than 10 times a year, women were more likely never to be intoxicated. No significant gender difference was found on the timing of the first episode of alcohol intoxication. Frequency of intoxication was unaffected by competitive level. Consumption of large quantities of alcohol may be the norm in team sports such as soccer or rugby that are associated with masculine values (Schneider and Greenberg, 1992
; Quarrie et al., 1996
). Another factor in drinking (and drug use) may be the need to reduce competitive stress and anxiety resulting from social pressures (Passer, 1983
; Smoll and Smith, 1990
; Bray et al., 2000
). In addition, participation in sports provides opportunities for young people to drink alcohol, as well as to consume other drugs, because it takes participants to venues where they are out with adult and parental control (Osgood et al., 1996
).
Our results are still preliminary as the students sampled may not be representative of all French sports sciences students. This survey will be extended within the next 2 years to examine a national sample of sports students, and students from other academic disciplines. So far, we can state that the abstinence rate of 27.9% in our sample is similar to previous observations of 27% in Italian (Roncone et al., 1996) and 26% in UK (Granville-Chapman et al., 2001
) medical students.
The young adults in this study are likely to become coaches, physical education teachers or even professional athletes. These professions play an important role in education and may greatly influence the young people with whom they interact. Results of these surveys could help in developing programmes to reduce or prevent abuse of alcohol and other substances in these students who may then influence future generations.
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APPENDIX 1 |
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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FOOTNOTES |
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REFERENCES |
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