Presentation Abstract

Session: E-32-Nutritional and Doping Practices
Friday, Jun 04, 2010, 7:30 AM -12:30 PM
Presentation: 2545 - NCAA Student-Athlete Energy Drink Use
Location: Hall C, Poster Board: 153
Pres. Time: Friday, Jun 04, 2010, 9:00 AM -10:30 AM
Category: +608 supplements, drugs and ergogenic aids
Keywords: Athletes; Energy Drinks
Author(s): Conrad Woolsey1, Weston Kensinger1, Lincoln Gibbs1, Amanda Divin2. 1Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. 2Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL.
Email: conrad.woolsey@okstate.edu
Abstract: Purpose: Research indicates that college athletes participate in more alcohol-related risk taking and experience more negative consequences from using alcohol compared to other college students (Ford, 2007; Wechsler et al., 1997). This study investigated how energy drinks affect the existing alcohol related problems and measured athletes’ alcohol, energy-drink-only and combined-use consumption rates. It was also the first to compare risk taking behaviors and negative consequences among combined-users when using alcohol-only to when combining alcohol and energy drinks. Methods: In the Fall of 2006, a total of 401 of 456 NCAA student-athletes (257 male,144 female) from a large D-I University voluntarily participated in this study. The combined- use sample (n =132) used for hypotheses testing contained 91 men (68.9%) and 41 women (31.1%) with an average age of 20.0 (SD = 1.30) years. Participants were recruited as entire teams at designated meetings. This study used the Quick Drink Screen for alcohol (QDS; Sobell et al., 2003) and a modified version for combined-use and energy-drink-only use. Results: From the total sample (N = 401) 315 (78.6%) used alcohol, 150 (37.4%) combined alcohol with energy drinks, and 194 (48.4%) used energy drinks without alcohol. Of the 315 college athlete drinkers, 48% combined alcohol and energy drinks in the past year and 290 (92.1%) reported binge-drinking. Among combined-users, 68 of 107 male (46.26%) and 24 of 40 (16.33%) female respondents used 3 or more energy drinks while using alcohol. Woolsey (2007) coined this as the “energy-binge” and considered it to be a high-risk drinking behavior because it puts users at-risk for serious health consequences such as heart problems. Independent samples t test results indicated that sex (male/female) on combined-use risk taking behaviors was highly significant, n = 130, t(128) = 4.45, p < .001. Results indicated that men took significantly more risks than women when combining alcohol & energy drinks. Conclusion: Results indicated combined-users consumed significantly more alcohol and had riskier drinking habits than athletes who used alcohol only. Results suggest a need to include information about energy drinks in existing athlete alcohol education and prevention programs.
Disclosures:  C. Woolsey, None.