A study published this week in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine reported a link between public Facebook habits and personal drinking problems.
"[The study] found that underage college students who referenced dangerous drinking habits, such as intoxication or blacking out, [on public Facebook profiles] were more likely to have scores that indicate problem drinking or alcohol-related injury," Dr. Megan Moreno, author of the study and assistant professor of adolescent medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said in a National Institutes of Health press release.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Washington, Seattle polled undergraduates with public Facebook profiles from two different state universities. A total of 224 users participated, of whom 54.5 percent were female and 67.9 percent were white. The average age of the participants was 18.8 years old.
The profiles of the participants were classified into three distinct categories - 64.3 percent were nondisplayers without any signs of alcohol references, 19.6 percent were displayers with minor alcohol references and 16.1 percent were intoxication/problem drinking displayers with references to "being drunk" or "getting wasted."
The study found that the intoxication/problem drinking "displayers were more likely to be white compared with other races," but there were no differences based on age, sex or universities.
The researchers then invited the participants to fill out an online version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, or AUDIT, a 10-question scale designed to assess alcohol consumption and dependence. AUDIT scores can range from 0 to 40 and a score of 8 or higher typically indicates a risk of problem drinking.
On average, intoxication/problem drinking displayers scored 1.48 times higher on the AUDIT test when compared to alcohol displayers. The intoxication/problem drinking displayers were also the only group among all three to show average AUDIT scores which reached into the problem drinking category. There was no statistically significant difference found between the nondisplayers and the displayers with minor alcohol references.
In their report, the authors suggest using Facebook as a "complementary and innovative screening tool" to assess possible drinking problems in student populations and diagnose the potential need for counseling or intervention efforts.
Moreno said the study also "suggests that parents and college health care providers who note references to problem drinking on the Facebook profiles of adolescents should consider discussing drinking habits with their children and patients."
Dr. James Thomson, a psychiatrist at the University's Student Health Center, said the study could be useful for dealing with student drinking problems.
"[It is] an innovative study," he said. "Since denial of any problem is a prominent characteristic of alcohol and substance abuse, being able to find ways to reach students at risk will aid early treatment and maybe save some students from the serious consequences"
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