High-risk drinking, on campus and off

College students drink more alcohol and are more likely to binge drink than young adults who are not in college, but the nonstudents are more likely to be dependent on alcohol, a new study has found.

Other studies have found that students are more likely to take part in heavy or binge drinking than peers in the same age group who do not attend college.

The 2001 survey of 6,300 people ages 19 to 21 found that 18% of college students reported alcohol-related problems compared with 15% of those not in college.

Students also exceeded their nonstudent peers in weekly, monthly and yearly alcohol use, the report said. But nonstudents were more likely to drink daily -- a sign of alcohol dependency.

“The results of this study provide a more encouraging message about the consequences of college drinking than many of the recent reports,” wrote study author Wendy Slutske of the University of Missouri at Columbia.

The report was published in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.