Aim: Aim of this study is to estiminate the prevalence of hazardous alcohol consumption among law enforcement cadets and dual-status students (hereinafter called: law enforcement students) in Hungarian higher education.
Methodology: A questionnaire survey was conducted among law enforcement students at the Faculty of Law Enforcement of the University of Public Service (N=201). The student status adjusted sample (N=180) was 57.2% male (n=103) and 42.8% female (n=77). We used the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), which is frequently used in national and international research and has a high rater reliability.
Findings: The lifetime prevalence of alcohol consumption among law enforcement students is 98.8% (n=178). The majority of law enforcement students (62.4%, n=111) were classified as low-risk drinkers/abstainers based on their AUDIT scores (x < 8). However, more than a third of law enforcement students (37.6%) were found to have scores indicating at risk drinking (x ≥ 8). The results of the study demonstrate that there is a significant association between heavy episodic drinking and gender (p: 0.026020084, p ≤ 0.05).
Value: Results of this study suggest that the organisation of prevention programmes, brief interventions and regular monitoring of drug use among law enforcement students should be considered.