HARD DRIVES REPLACING HARD CORE

Students Eschew Drugs For Doom

On Canadian university campuses, old-fashioned habits of binge drinking,
drugs and promiscuity have given way to a newer health scourge: the
physical and emotional fallout from too much computer time.

This generation of students is more likely to skip class because they are
hooked on video games than hung over, and have a better chance of making
friends with youth as depressed as they are than finding multiple sexual
partners.

According to a health survey at two universities at either end of the
country -- B.C.'s Simon Fraser and Memorial in Newfoundland -- back pain,
repetitive stress injuries and exhaustion are among students' biggest
concerns, ailments associated with too much time spent in front of the
computer.

Almost a quarter of students on both campuses reported suffering
academically because of their Internet use and computer gaming, listing
them as factors contributing to the dropping of a course or receiving a
lower grade in an exam. Alcohol and drug use, by comparison, barely
registered single digits as factors impacting academic performance.

"They are always on the computer," says Kathie Saunders, a health educator
at Memorial's Counselling Centre. "That can lead to isolation,
procrastination and depression."

In other areas, students are healthier than some might expect. Almost 70%
have never smoked a cigarette. Less than 2% are anorexic. Between 75% and
80% are not having sex or have had only one sexual partner within the past
12 months.

More than half of SFU students avoid drinking games, while 80% of their
Memorial peers appoint a designated driver before going to a party.

Despite the geographic differences, health problems were similar among the
two survey groups -- a cohort of largely white, first-year students in St.
John's, Nfld., whose average age is 18, and a larger group of ethnically
diverse pupils in Burnaby, B.C., where the average age is almost 24.

But if adults continue to perceive university as time to indulge in sex,
booze and drugs, so do students, who indicated they believe substance abuse
and promiscuity are more rampant than the reality.

More than 60% of students admit they have never tried marijuana, even
though most students believe many of their peers are regular pot users.
Less than 1% of students drink daily, although 41% of students at Memorial
and 19% at SFU believe the "typical university student" consumes alcohol
every day, according to the survey.

In reality, student alcohol use is difficult to generalize. At SFU, for
example, 37% of students did not drink at all, or had not drunk within 30
days of completing the survey. Just over half had used alcohol within the
past one to nine days, while less than 10% were heavier users.

"There is usually a small group of students who abuse alcohol and do things
like get into fights," says Lynn Pelletier, director of health counselling
at SFU. "Unfortunately everyone gets associated with this group."

Campus health officials know this already from their own surveying and have
attempted to get the message out to youth they are more likely to "fit in"
if they drink less, rather than more, through posters that advertise low
drinking rates among students.

"It's called changing social norms," says Ms. Saunders. "Students think
everyone is out there binge drinking and having sex, so they think they
have to do that too, to be like everyone else."

"We try to get the message out that a lot more people are having one or two
drinks than five or six a night."

Still, a considerable number of students are heavy drinkers. Almost 30% of
Memorial students and 21% of SFU students admitted they had recently
consumed five or more drinks in one sitting. Among student drinkers, 46% on
the Newfoundland campus said their drinking resulted in doing something
they later regretted; at SFU, 9% admitted to having unprotected sex as a
result of alcohol.

Depression, however, has vastly overcome substance abuse as the most
prevalent health problem on campus, and both Ms. Saunders and Ms. Pelletier
suspect students' psychological experiences are being influenced by their
computer habits, as well as their lack of exercise and proper diet.

Fully 40% of SFU students and 45% of Memorial students reported feeling so
depressed it was difficult to function at various times during the year,
while even more experienced feelings of hopelessness and exhaustion.

"We can't say definitively," Ms. Pelletier says. "But if students are
turning to computers for socializing, that means they are spending a lot of
time alone. Instead of talking on the phone, or face to face, they are
interacting online."

Ms.Pelletier said schools use the data to launch public health campaigns,
or send counsellors into undergraduate residences to give tips on how to
cook healthy food on a budget or adjust their desk chairs to minimize strain.

Half the SFU students and 61% of the Memorial students are not eating the
recommended three to five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, for
example. Explains Ms. Saunders: "We have to explain it's cheaper to buy a
bag of apples or cook a plate of spaghetti then go out for fast-food every
day."

Depression still has plenty of traditional causes, such as anxiety about
finding a job getting into graduate school, Ms. Pelletier adds.

"Academic competition is tougher than its ever been," she says. "When you
add relationships, and moving away from home, it can get overwhelming. It
doesn't mean they are clinically depressed, but they are feeling a lot of
stress and anxiety."

"There are a lot of things happening that are quite different than their
protected lives at home, when they were at high school."

The two schools are among the first in the country to participate in a
major health survey administered by a the American College Health
Association, a U.S. non-profit organization that operates at 274 universities.