Screening services for alcohol misuse and abuse at four-year colleges in the U.S

Abstract

We examine the prevalence of screening for student alcohol misuse/abuse among 333 U.S. colleges via a survey of campus leaders. We also use latent class modeling to identify classes of colleges based on screening practices. We found that most colleges conduct screening after a student is involved in an alcohol-related incident, and about 50% of colleges screen students at regular health care visits. Legal, health care, and housing staff are trained in screening at nearly all colleges; other key personnel were trained at about one third of colleges. We identified four classes of colleges: 62% of colleges fit in a class that had many screening components in place, 9% in a class with very limited services, and the remainder (29%) fit in 2 middle classes. Although most colleges had many alcohol misuse/abuse screening components in place, more than one third show need for improvement in how, where, and when screening is conducted.