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Student eating and drinking behaviours study

We're looking at the relationship between students eating behaviours and alcohol consumption.

Study details

UK university students’ eating behaviours in response to alcohol consumption is a greatly understudied area for research.


Recent studies in the USA and Australia have shown changes in student eating behaviours prior to drinking alcohol, such as restricting food intake. This behaviour change has potentially dangerous consequences.

Our research aims to determine whether UK students are engaging in restrictive eating behaviours before alcohol consumption and whether these behaviours are associated with increased alcohol consumption.

Who are we looking for?

To be eligible, participants should:

  • be a student at a UK university
  • be aged 18 or over
  • have consumed alcohol within the past three months

What's involved?

The study involves completing a short online questionnaire in which you will be asked some information about yourself e.g. sex, age, weight, ethnicity, how much you drink, and about your eating behaviours. You will also be asked some questions to assess your current knowledge about the calories present in alcoholic drinks. The survey should take between 10-15 minutes to complete.

Participation in this research study is not reimbursed. However, your participation will greatly contribute to our understanding of behaviours that increase harm from alcohol consumption.

This study will run between 25 March and 30 September 2019.


Data protection

How we'll look after your data.


All data will remain confidential and anonymous, in line with the Data Protection Act. However, you have the right to withdraw your data at any point during the survey and may choose to not complete it.

Please note that once the survey has been completed and submitted, your data will be untraceable. Your data will be stored on password protected servers, only accessible by the research team.

Contact us

Please get in touch if you have any questions.


Relevant ethics approval information

This study has received full ethical approval from the Psychology Department Ethics Committee at the University of Bath (Ethics approval number: 17-026).