College Students

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) surveillance of drug-related ED visits, underage (B21 years) alcohol-alone visit rates have been increasing since 2004 to 2009 (1). Similarly, the ‘‘alcohol’’ syndrome for underage (12-20 years) ED visits also shows an overall increase from 2003 to 2009 in the percentage of alcohol-related visits (2). College-aged drinkers tend to binge drink at a higher frequency than the general population, putting them at greater risk for unintentional injuries and unsafe sex practices (3). Identifying collegespecific patterns for alcohol-associated morbidity have important policy implications to reduce excessive drinking and associated harms on and around college campuses.

Objective

To develop and implement a method for using emergency department records from a syndromic surveillance system to identify alcohol-related visits in New York City, estimate trends, and describe age-specific patterns. In particular, we are interested in college-aged morbidity patterns and how they differ from other age groups.

Currently over 18 million students are enrolled in USA institutions of higher education (IHEs), representing more than one-third of the young adult population. In a national survey, about 16% of students reported living at home. SHCs are therefore an important resource for the majority of college students. College communities are unique settings that are geographically diverse, highly mobile, and densely populated with congregate living and learning conditions. IHEs, therefore, are highly vulnerable to the introduction of contagious diseases with subsequent transmission to surrounding communities. Thousands of counseling and student health centers exist, funded by billions of dollars. Despite these facts, there was no national database on the health care utilization of this population. In an era in which health policies and plans are typically guided by data, we were relatively blind to information about the diagnoses, epidemiologic trends and health care needs of young adults attending colleges and universities.

Objective

We received CDC funding to create and maintain a multi-institutional de-identified medical records database from student health centers (SHCs) for a nationally representative sample of colleges and universities.