Alcohol and Super Bowl Parties

Abstract

Welcome to Public Health Moment from the University of Minnesota. Super Bowl parties have become sort of an American tradition. They are a special time for friends to gather to watch football, funny TV commercials, and to eat – and drink. That last part can be a bit dangerous. A recent University of Minnesota study found that about 8 percent of fans watching games at sports stadiums are legally drunk when they leave. Can that behavior translate to Super Bowl parties? Darin Erickson, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist who led the study, thinks so. <Erickson: “The idea of viewing sporting events and consuming alcohol certainly go hand-in-hand. And I think there is the possibility of translating some of that around this notion of viewing sports at home. There have been other studies, for instance, that have looked at Super Bowl Sunday and the increased likelihood of traffic crashes. What they found was that there was a statistically significant increase in the number of fatal car accidents on Super Bowl Sunday. Now, my guess is that is not due to the 80,000 people who are actually in the Super Bowl stadium. It’s because of all these Super Bowl parties that are happening.”> Erickson recommends planning ahead. <Erickson: “Limit how much you drink, obviously. Second, if you eat something, that’s going to help. And having some kind of transportation plan would be perfect – whether that’s a designated driver, or whether that’s public transportation, etc.”> For Public Health Moment, I’m Mark Engebretson