Successes and challenges in working within a large and diverse university to reduce alcohol-related harms — Agentur Pty Ltd
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  3. Successes and challenges in working within a large and diverse university to reduce alcohol-related harms

Successes and challenges in working within a large and diverse university to reduce alcohol-related harms (96)

Sharyn Burns 1 , Gemma Crawford 1 , Jonathan Hallett 1 , Linda Portsmouth 1 , Janelle Longo 2 , Kristen Hunt 1 , Jonine Jancey 1
  1. School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  2. South Metropolitan Public Health Unit, Department of Health WA, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Background:

Young Australian university students consume alcohol at more harmful and hazardous levels than their non-university attending peers. University students are likely to fall higher on the social gradient scale than non-university students. Should be we concerned about this seemingly privileged group of young people? How do we challenge social norms that are so embedded and how do we work within a large and diverse organisation to make sustainable positive changes? The Youth Alcohol Project was implemented to reduce witnessed and experienced harms among young students attending a large and culturally diverse university and includes a range of structural, organisational, behavioural and educational health promotion strategies.

Methods:

A cross-sectional survey was emailed to a random selection of 18 to 24 year old students (n=6000). Approximately 1930 students completed the online survey and an additional 600 surveys were completed via intercept on campus. The survey measured prevalence, attitudes towards alcohol consumption, experienced and witnessed harms associated with alcohol consumption and connectedness to university. Additional data were collected via an environmental audit and via focus groups.

Results/Discussions:

Early analysis of data found the majority of students report drinking alcohol (82%; n = 2051) and of these most indicated they drank at least six standard drinks on one occasion (80%; n = 1642). Results will describe the impact of witnessed and experienced harms and attitudes to alcohol use and focus on how these findings can inform comprehensive health promotion interventions. These findings will be discussed with consideration of the challenges confronting the project team in working within a large organisation to achieve structural and sustainable changes.

Conclusions/implications:

We will use our findings to describe sustainable health promotion strategies that are amenable to implement in a university environment and discuss the successes and challenges associated with working in a university setting, especially when focusing on changing normative behaviours.

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