Underage Drinking Among College Students
- An estimated 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year
from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes.1
- Approximately 600,000 students are unintentionally injured while under the influence
of alcohol.2
- Approximately 700,000 students are assaulted by other students who have been drinking.3
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 49 high-quality, peer-reviewed
studies of communities that changed their drinking age and found conclusively that
a minimum drinking age of 21 decreases fatalities by 16 percent.4
- Studies of the effects of minimum legal drinking age laws show that a higher minimum
legal drinking age is related to decreased traffic crashes.5
Sources
1,2,3 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon
General. (2007).
The Surgeon General's Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking
(PDF 1.41MB), p. 13.
4 Shults, R.A.; Elder, R.W., Sleet, D. A.; et al. (2001). Reviews of evidence
regarding interventions to reduce alcohol-impaired driving. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, Task Force on Community Preventive Services. American Journal
of Preventive Medicine 21(4S):66-88.
5 Wagenaar, A.C., and Toomey, T.L. (2002). Effects of minimum drinking
age laws: Review and analyses of the literature from 1960 to 2000. Journal of Studies
on Alcohol Supplement 14:206-225.
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