"Ladies night," "two-for-one" and "all-you-can-drink" -Gainesville bars offer all kinds of specials to college partiers. But according to a new UF study, the deals could create a cocktail for catastrophe.
The study shows that those who take advantage of specials are four times as likely to leave a bar or club with a blood-alchohol level exceeding the legal limit for driving than those who do not.
Virginia Dodd, the study's co-author and UF assistant professor of health education and behavior, said people take advantage of drinking specials because they see it as a bargain.
"It's almost, I believe, a game to see how drunk you can get for little or no money," Dodd said.
Participants were given breath-testing devices to measure their blood-alcohol level as they left Gainesville bars.
Of the 291 participants, about 61 percent were men and about 39 percent were women.
The study reveals that gender didn't come into play when it came time for breath tests, Dodd said.
She said in a subsequent study, researchers found that 65 percent of women took advantage of the specials compared to 52 percent of men.
Researchers used breath tests because they are more reliable than self-reports, said Dennis Thombs, UF health education and behavior professor and leader of the study.
"Self-reports rely in memory, honesty and sobriety," Thombs said. "Many of the people outside bars don't have any of these things."
