The State Sets the Rate: The Relationship Among State-Specific College Binge Drinking, State Binge Drinking Rates, and Selected State Alcohol Control Policies

Objectives. We assessed the relationship between college binge drinking, binge drinking in the general population, and selected alcohol control policies. Methods. We analyzed binge drinking rates from 2 national surveys, the Har-vard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Binge drinking data were linked to a summary measure of 7 salient alcohol control policies and a rating of resources devoted to law enforcement. Results. State-level college and adult binge drinking rates were strongly correlated (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.43; P<.01). Attending college in states with the lowest binge drinking rates (adjusted odds ratio [OR]=0.63; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.41, 0.97) and presence of more stringent alcohol control policies (adjusted OR=0.57; 95% CI=0.33, 0.97) were independent predictors of student binge drinking, after adjusting for state law enforcement and individual-, college-, and state-level covariates. Conclusions. State of residence is a predictor of binge drinking by college students. State-level alcohol control policies may help reduce binge drinking among college students and in the general population

Project ScOPE: School Obesity-related Policy Evaluation

Survey data and documentation are primarily organized in three zipped folders. Files are organized according to the survey they are associated with. All Minnesota Student Survey (MSS) files, which include the original survey, data description, codebook, variable descriptions, and data files, are zipped into the folder labeled scope_mss.zip. The same is true for Minnesota School Health Profiles Principal (HPP) and Minnesota School Health Profiles Teacher (HPT) files. The additional unzipped files include a longer description of the ScOPE Project (scope_description.pdf) the formats required to run the program in a statistical program (scope_formats.sas and scope_formats.txt), and a list of all publications that resulted from the study (scope_publications.pdf). Within zipped folders, the naming convention for files is as follows: [project]_[year]_[survey]_[description].[extension]. Year is represented as a four-digit number. The survey that the file is associated will be a standard code (mss, hpp, hpt). Description denotes whether the file contains data (referred to as “data”), documentation of variables (“variables” or “codebook”), or provides further description of the data (“datadescription” or “survey”). Where one element of the filename is unnecessary, for example, with the upper level zipped files, it is omitted. Data were originally analyzed using SAS. Those file formats are included here; however, all files have also been converted to CSV which can be used in a variety of software, including SAS, SPSS, R, and STATA. It is important to note that when loading the Health Profiles survey data (HPP and HPT) into SAS, you must first run the scope_formats.sas file. If using another statistical software program, note that additional needed value labels are in the scope_formats.txt file. Some of the Health Profiles variables are already formatted, so the formats need to be available in the statistical program to read the data in correctly.The goal of this study was to evaluate the associations between school-level food and physical activity policy and practice environments and student diet, activity behaviors, and weight status using three surveys: The Minnesota School Health Profiles Principal Survey, the Minnesota School Health Profiles Teacher Survey, and the Minnesota Student Survey.Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Grant No. R01-HD07073

Patterns of alcohol policy enforcement activities among local law enforcement agencies: A latent class analysis

AIMS: We assessed levels and patterns of alcohol policy enforcement activities among U.S. local law enforcement agencies. DESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 1,631 local law enforcement agencies across the 50 states. MEASURES/METHODS: We assessed 29 alcohol policy enforcement activities within each of five enforcement domains—underage alcohol possession/consumption, underage alcohol provision, underage alcohol sales, impaired driving, and overservice of alcohol—and conducted a series of latent class analyses to identify unique classes or patterns of enforcement activity for each domain. FINDINGS: We identified three to four unique enforcement activity classes for each of the enforcement domains. In four of the domains, we identified a Uniformly Low class (i.e., little or no enforcement) and a Uniformly High enforcement activity class (i.e., relatively high levels of enforcement), with one or two middle classes where some but not all activities were conducted. The underage provision domain had a Uniformly Low class but not a Uniformly High class. The Uniformly Low class was the most prevalent class in three domains: underage provision (58%), underage sales (61%), and overservice (79%). In contrast, less than a quarter of agencies were in Uniformly High classes. CONCLUSIONS: We identified qualitatively distinct patterns of enforcement activity, with a large proportion of agencies in classes characterized by little or no enforcement and fewer agencies in high enforcement classes. An important next step is to determine if these patterns are associated with rates of alcohol use and alcohol-related injury and mortality

Supplemental Material, Appendix_Tables - The Minne-Loppet Motivation Study: An Intervention to Increase Motivation for Outdoor Winter Physical Activity in Ethnically and Racially Diverse Elementary Schools

<p>Supplemental Material, Appendix_Tables for The Minne-Loppet Motivation Study: An Intervention to Increase Motivation for Outdoor Winter Physical Activity in Ethnically and Racially Diverse Elementary Schools by Jonathan M. Miller, Julian Wolfson, Melissa N. Laska, Toben F. Nelson, and Mark A. Pereira in American Journal of Health Promotion</p