In earlier studies, researchers at Duke University had used a laboratory setting to ask students to pour what they thought were standard-sized drinks, and found the students consistently poured larger amounts of beer, wine and hard liquor. This led the researchers to think students tended to underestimate how much alcohol they drank on a given night.
However, a subsequent field study done late one evening on the Duke campus, when researchers collected breathalyzer readings as well as self-reports of how many drinks the students had drunk that night, revealed the students' blood alcohol concentrations were reasonably close to levels that would be found in the number of drinks the students reported consuming.
"This data suggests that surveys [of students' self-reported drinking habits] are useful in collecting data about drinking habits," said study author Aaron White, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Duke University and corresponding author of the study.
The findings appear in the September issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Another expert on the subject, Henry Wechsler, director of the Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol Studies Program, bases most of his work on self-reported drinking surveys among students.
"While this [the Duke research] is a provocative study, I can't fairly accept it as definitive proof of [the accuracy of self-reporting] because it is based on a small sample at one school," he said. "It needs further study."
For the field study, White and his colleagues collected breathalyzer readings and self-reported drinking data from 152 Duke students -- 104 men and 48 women -- who were walking on campus between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. during the fall of 2004.
Comparing the self-reports of the number of drinks the students said they had with breathalyzer results, the researchers found that the students' blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) accurately reflected the alcohol that would have been in the drinks.
The average BAC levels among the students was 0.09 percent, which is above the 0.08 percent limit in most states for driving. The most accurate BACs were reported by the men and by those who drank beer rather than wine or spirits. The accuracy of the estimated BAC levels decreased as the number of drinks and the amount of time spent drinking increased.
White said that while the field study results were encouraging, they didn't address whether the students had gotten their drinks from restaurants, bars or containers, which serve standard-sized portions, or from off-campus private parties where students often pour much larger drinks for themselves.
"The study was done on campus. If we had looked at off-campus parties, we might have had different results," he said.
The bottom line, White said, is that students need to be educated about standard drink servings so they can better monitor their alcohol consumption.
"The simple fact is that we have so many kids who don't know about alcohol serving sizes. Educating them about serving sizes is getting more and more important," he said.
In another small study looking at the impact of alcohol on teens, Duke researchers found that parts of the brain that are involved in complex thinking and emotional control are smaller in teens who abuse alcohol than in those who do not.
The researchers said it's not clear whether alcohol abuse at a young age is the cause of the smaller size of this part of the brain, called the prefrontal cortex. It could be that this region, which governs thinking, planning and emotional control, increases the risk for alcohol abuse, they said.
The study results also appear in the appear in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
More information
For more on the dangers of alcohol abuse, visit the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
This year, flu vaccine will be made available first to those in high-risk groups, such as people 65 and over, those with autoimmune diseases and people with chronic conditions, pregnant women and health-care workers.
In addition, Hurricane Katrina evacuees living in shelters will also be given top priority.
The recommendations were presented at a news briefing Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Flu vaccine will be made available to the rest of the public starting on Oct. 24, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This gives us a good month to concentrate on the people who need the vaccine the most," said CDC Director Dr. Julie L. Gerberding. "This ensures people across our country that, after that point, vaccine will be made available."
Hurricane Katrina survivors are now considered priority patients and will receive flu vaccine along with other high-risk groups, Gerberding added.
"If there is any population that deserves first access to the vaccine, it is the people who have already gone through so much difficulty," she said.
This year's vaccine contains three strains of flu, H1, H3 and one B strain, Gerberding said. As far as avian flu is concerned, Gerberding said there is no ability to predict its transmission from person to person.
"There is more avian flu virus in Asia moving westward than we have ever seen before," she added. "However, there is still no evidence of person-to-person transmission."
But the CDC is putting a high priority on taking steps just in case of an avian flu outbreak. These steps include working on and stockpiling a vaccine and other antiviral medications, Gerberding said.
Flu takes a tremendous toll every year, added Dr. William Schaffner, from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. "Influenza is responsible for 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths annually in the United States," he said.
In light of last year's scramble to get enough flu shots once one key manufacturer's production was halted due to contamination problems, this year the supply is expected to reach more than 90,000,000 doses from four drugmakers.
In addition, Medicare has raised the reimbursement to doctors for flu vaccine from $10.10 last season to $12.06, according to Dr. Mark B. McClellan, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Medicare has also ruled that nursing homes must make flu vaccine available to all residents. "Our goal is for 90 percent of nursing home residents to get the flu vaccine," McClellan said.
Should there be a vaccine shortage this year, the CDC will make allocation plans for what is available, said Dr. Jeanne Santoli, the associate director of science at the CDC's Immunization Services Division.
Dr. Henry Bernstein, of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases, stressed the importance of vaccinating children over 6 months to 23 months of age, and older children with chronic conditions.
"Infants and toddlers under 2 years of age and children with certain medical conditions, such as asthma and diabetes, are at the highest risk of complications if they get the flu," Bernstein said.
Moreover, Dr. Artis D. Hoven, a member of the American Medical Association's board of trustees, stressed that to prevent the spread of flu, all health-care workers should get vaccinated. "Health-care facilitates should make it as convenient as possible for health-care workers to receive the vaccine," she said.
One expert thinks that getting a flu shot serves two purposes: Preventing flu, and getting people used to vaccination in case of an outbreak of more serious disease, such as avian flu.
"It's important to get vaccinated, especially for people who are vulnerable to the complications of flu, said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.
"It's important to vaccinate as many people as possible to interrupt transmission of the flu, because we are facing a more dangerous strain of the flu," Katz added.
Getting accustomed to vaccination is a crucial public health measure to forestall an outbreak of bird flu when it happens, Katz said.
"It will," he added. "It's not a question of whether -- it's a question of when."
More information
The CDC can tell you more about flu.
