Correlates of Alcohol Consumption, Drug Usage, Sexual Behaviors and Knowledge about HIV/AIDS Infection among College Students

Dr. Terence Hicks
thicks@uncfsu.edu
Dr. Juanita Ashby-Bey
Dr. Leontye Lewis
Mr. Johnny Michael Harpe
Fayetteville State University

This study evaluated the correlates of alcohol consumption, drug usage, sexual behaviors and knowledge about HIV/AIDS infection among traditional college students attending a university in North Carolina. A Health Behaviors, Self-Rated Health and Quality of Life (QOL) questionnaire was administered to 447 university college students. The participants in this study were all identified as traditional college students between the ages of 18 and 23 years old, most of whom were African Americans (63.5%).

Results from this study determined that compelling information and significant relationships were found between alcohol consumption, drug usage, protective behaviors and having sexual intercourse among traditional college students. Most importantly this study documented statistical significant relationships among “how often a person drink alcohol and sexual intercourse” (r(441) = .-325, p < .001), “the amount of alcohol consumed on each occasion and sexual intercourse” (r(444) = .-207, p < .001), “using a condom during sexual intercourse and the number of times a person drank alcohol,” (r(439) = .-196, p < .001) and “using protection without any alcohol or drug influences,” (r(394) = .-742, p < .001). Findings are discussed in terms of their implications on future research and prevention programming.

Purpose of the Study

The literature presented on alcohol consumption, drug usage, sexual behaviors and knowledge about HIV/AIDS infection clearly suggests that there is a need for conveying prevention information to young African American adults. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct a baseline investigation of traditional college students’ alcohol consumption, drug usage, sexual behaviors and knowledge about HIV/AIDS infection. The results of this study may be useful in identifying certain subgroups of students at particular risk for certain types of lifestyle patterns while attending college. In addition, this study may provide background information that may be helpful in providing alcohol, drug and sexual behaviors prevention programs on college and university campuses.

Method
Participants

The Health Behaviors, Self-Rated Health and Quality of Life (QOL) questionnaire was administered to 447 university college students during the Fall 2005/Spring 2006 academic semesters. The participants in this study were all identified as traditional college students between the ages of 18 and 23 years old, most of whom were African Americans (63.5%). Sixty-four percent of the sample was female and comprised of approximately 58.8 percent of freshmen, 14.8 percent sophomores, 16.6 percent juniors, 9.2 percent seniors, and .6 percent of the sample being graduate students. As far as living conditions, (71%) of the college students indicated that they were living on campus, (29%) lived off campus. Ninety percent of the study sample was residents of North Carolina. Fifty-one percent of the participants were first-generation college students.   A majority of the college students 43.2% in this study indicated that they received student loans and support from their spouse or parents, 18.3% indicated that they received student loan and income from paid employment, 19.7% indicated that they received student loans and other sources of income and 9.4% indicated they only received student loans.

Procedure

Students, who were enrolled in Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 courses at a participating 4-year public North Carolina university, completed the QOL. After obtaining permission from the university Institutional Review Board (IRB), professors of both upper and lower level courses were contacted for an agreeable time to administer the survey. Before completing the survey, students signed an Informed Consent form. Each QOL answer sheet was assigned a number and entered into SPSS.  Completed data sheets and signed consent forms were kept in separate locked cabinets.

Instrument

The 30-item questionnaire used in this study was the Health Behaviors, Self-Rated Health and Quality of Life (Vaez & Laflamme, 2004), also known as the Quality of Life (QOL), survey. For this study, six additional questions that addressed sexual behaviors and drugs were created by this study authors and added to the original 30-item questionnaire. In addition, a demographic section, which included questions, related to, for example, age, sex, race, and living conditions, was added to the QOL questionnaire. In addition to the questionnaire demographic section, the original QOL sections include Life-Style, Student Life Stressors, and Health Status.
Results and Discussion

Alcohol Consumption, Drugs Usage and Sexual Intercourse among Traditional College Students

A Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for the relationship between drinking alcohol and using drugs before having sexual intercourse. As seen in Table 1, a moderate correlation was found (r (441) = -.325, p < .001) between sexual intercourse and how often a person drinks alcohol. However, a weak correlation was found (r (444) = -.207, p < .001) between sexual intercourse and the amount consumed on each occasion.  According to Cooper (2002), research examining the link between alcohol and risky sex at the global level typically asks participants about their overall involvement in some high-risk behavior and their overall frequency and quantity of alcohol use. Studies using this approach have generally found strong relationships between alcohol use and indiscriminate behaviors, but inconsistent ones between alcohol use and protective behaviors.  However, what is apparent is that studies have indicated that most college students are sexually experienced, and many engage in multiple forms of risky sexual behavior.
Surprisingly, having found negative moderate and weak relationships between sexual intercourse/how often a person drinks alcohol and sexual intercourse/the amount of alcohol consumed on each occasion may be alarming and eye opening findings for this sample of traditional college students. According to, Wagner, Liles, Broadnax and Nuriddin-Little (2006), undergraduate alcohol use and other drug use poses particular concerns for students and their families, college and university personnel and administration, and for society at large. Educational difficulties; antisocial behavior, including damage to private and public property; psychosocial and legal problems; and poor behavioral choices such as sexual risk-taking and driving while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs have been associated with problematic alcohol and other drug use, as have poor educational and professional outcomes (Wechsler, Lee, Kuo, & Lee, 2000; Wagner, 1989).
A weak correlation was also found (r (439) = -.196, p < .001) between using a condom during sexual intercourse and the number of times a person drank alcohol.  However, it was interesting to note, that when looking at college students’ health behaviors toward having sex and using protection without any alcohol or drug influences, a very strong correlation was found (r (394) = .742, p < .001).  As seen in Table 2, this finding was consistent with the responses from question 36 -- the last time you had sexual intercourse, what one method did you or your partner use to prevent pregnancy, majority of the college students (38.8%) indicated that they used a condom, followed by using birth control (25.9%).  

Knowledge about HIV/AIDS Infection among Traditional College Students

It was interesting to note that when examining the frequencies and percentages among college students, who responded to question 31-- “ever talked about HIV/AIDS infection with your parents or other adults in your family,” a larger percentage of college students (59.5%) indicated yes that they talked about HIV/AIDS with their parents or other adult from their family; question 32 -- “ever been taught about HIV/AIDS infection in any of your college courses,” again a larger percentage of students (59.5%) indicated that they were taught about HIV/AIDS infection in their college courses.
Recent studies have indicated that college students have very good to excellent levels of knowledge regarding the HIV virus and AIDS, with student knowing what HIV and AIDS are, how HIV is transmitted, and how to prevent the transmission of the virus (Keeling, 1991; Grieger & Ponterotto, 1988; McDermott, R.J., Moore, J.R. & Cittadina, S.K., 1987).  These findings on knowledge about HIV/AIDS with the present group of college students could be rewarding but knowledge alone can not guarantee safer sexual practices. However, researchers have commonly found that most college students are knowledgeable about HIV transmission routes and protection methods but that the knowledge rarely deters them from engaging in risky sexual practices. Mattson (2002) notes that the lack of HIV/AIDS research on college campuses results in limited knowledge about students’ perceptions and safer sex behaviors and increases the difficulty of developing effective education and prevention strategies.
For question 33 -- “ever had sexual intercourse;” question 34, “usage of alcohol or drugs before having sexual intercourse” and question 35 -- “the last time you had sexual intercourse, did you use a condom,” for each of the responses for questions 33 and 35, a larger percentage of the college students responded “yes” at 80.1% and 50.3% respectively.  These findings on sexual intercourse and using a condom among this student population was consistent to what Davis, Sloan, MacMaster & Kilbourne (2007) found when exploring racial differences in current sexual behaviors and safer sex practices, HIV/AIDS awareness, condom use-self efficacy, and attitudes toward safer sex practices in a sample of U.S. college students. These authors reported that sexually active African American students reported more condom use and greater intentions to use condoms or other safe sex practices in the future than the sexually active white students.  However, other studies that reviewed the prevalence of alcohol and risky sex on college campuses revealed overlapping behaviors. For example, according to findings from the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (Douglas, K.A., Collins, J.L., Warren, C., Kann, L., Gold, R., Clayton, S., Ross, J.G. & Kolbe, 1997), 8 of 10 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 years have ever had intercourse. Of these, 62% had recent (past 3 months) intercourse. More important, about 25% of students have had six or more lifetime sex partners, and only a minority take adequate precautions to prevent pregnancy or sexual infection. For example, 4 in 10 had used the "pill," and about as many had used a condom during their last sexual engagement, at last sex. Fewer than 4 in 10 reported that either they or their partner had always used a condom in the past 30 days.

Conclusion

The results of this questionnaire provided an important snapshot of the current alcohol consumption, drug usage, sexual behaviors and knowledge about HIV/AIDS infection among traditional African American college attending an institution in North Carolina. Moreover, the findings contributed to the identification of subgroups of students at particular risk for certain types of health issues that university officials can address by implementing the appropriate interventions that are  tailor-made for such groups.  The present study results provided important findings and documented significant relationships among how often a person drink alcohol and sexual intercourse, the amount of alcohol consumed on each occasion and sexual intercourse, using a condom during sexual intercourse and the number of times a person drank alcohol and using protection without any alcohol or drug influences. Most specific, the study attempted to address the gap in the literature by examining the correlates of alcohol consumption, drug usage, sexual behaviors and knowledge about HIV/AIDS infection among traditional college students attending a university in North Carolina. However, the results should be interpreted with caution. First, the use of self-reported surveys, this form of measurement is common in studies of this nature and is considered reliable. However, participants may distort their survey responses and may represent a source of bias. Second, although we drew a probability sample of college students, the study included students from only 1 university, so special care should be taken not to generalize the findings of this study to other student populations. The findings may hold true only if the populations are similar in nature.

Despite these limitations, our study has several important findings and could be added to existing research on African American traditional college students. However, future researchers could look at how well the self-reported alcohol, drug and sexual behaviors of traditional African-American college students and other groups are meeting the health objectives for the nation that are outlined in the Healthy People 2010 publication. Furthermore, to combat, alcohol, drug and health issues among college students in the university setting, Hicks and Miller (2006) suggest that university officials and administrators, along with health prevention specialists, could help in addressing health issues among African-American college students by meeting national health goals and eliminating the health status disparities by implementing effective programs. These authors’ notes that until more accurate methods are developed to identify which students are at risk of failing and leaving college, little can be done to intervene and avoid the undesired consequences of poor academic performance and attrition that affect both students and institutions due to health issues.