Motivation to adhere to unit-based guidelines for alcohol consumption and ability to do so is limited among university students

Aims: The first aim was to explore whether university students possess the information, motivation and behavioural skills required to adhere to government guidelines for alcohol consumption expressed in “units” of alcohol. The second aim was to identify correlates of greater motivation to adhere to guidelines and greater capacity to monitor alcohol unit intake. Methods: An online questionnaire was completed by 614 university students aged 18–30 living in South-East England. Key outcome variables were motivation to adhere to unit-based guidelines and a novel measure of accuracy of estimating recent alcohol unit intake. Findings: Respondents had poor knowledge of unit-based guidelines and their motivation to adhere to them was low. Only half of the sample had the skills to accurately estimate the alcohol unit content of their recent alcohol consumption. Greater capacity to accurately estimate recent alcohol unit intake and greater motivation to adhere to unit-based guidelines were related to psychological traits of greater conscientiousness and less extraversion, greater familiarity with unit-based guidelines and more positive attitudes toward them, and more moderate alcohol use. Conclusions: Taking into consideration people's beliefs and psychological traits could increase the effectiveness of health behaviour change strategies to curb alcohol consumption.