WEDNESDAY, Feb. 12, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- College students are engaging in risky behaviors during alcohol-related memory blackouts, and female students may be more at risk than males during those blackouts.
So says a study in the most recent issue of the Journal of American College Health.
Duke University Medical Center researchers did an e-mail survey of 772 undergraduate Duke University college students. It revealed that 74.2 percent of the respondents reported consuming alcohol in the two-week period before the survey.
Of those students, nearly 1 in 10 (9.4 percent) experienced at least one blackout during that same time period, and 40 percent reported having at least one alcohol-related blackout during the previous year.
During an alcohol-related blackout, a person is capable of taking part in emotionally charged activities and events but won't have a memory of them when sober.
Many of the students in the survey who experienced alcohol-induced blackout reported they later learned they had engaged in a wide range of risky behaviors. That included having unprotected sexual intercourse, vandalizing property and driving a car -- all which could have serious health or legal consequences.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about the problem of college student drinking.
