Wastewater–based epidemiology (WBE) has the potential to produce reliable, efficient, and non-invasive measures of current psychoactive drug use. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and validity of using WBE to estimate current cocaine use among university students at a residential campus.

We analyzed wastewater samples from four locations at a residential university campus during spring semester of 2021, testing for cocaine metabolites in addition to control comparison substances (acetaminophen and caffeine). We simultaneously administered a confidential self-report survey of recent substance use behaviors to a randomized sample of undergraduate students at this university.

Self-reported survey estimates of cocaine use and point estimates of cocaine use derived from wastewater-based epidemiology are similar, but the survey is imprecise with a wide CI, and agreement is sensitive to key WBE assumptions; thus, results are consistent but not conclusive. The self-report survey results indicated 0.13% of respondents were regular cocaine users, which is equivalent to the estimate of 0.12% of students using cocaine as measured through WBE. This prevalence is also in line with the 0.14% National American College Health Association (NACHA) survey during the same semester.

WBE shows promise as a complementary approach for estimating current cocaine use among students on a residential campus; with current data the WBE point estimate is similar to the survey point estimate, but uncertainty in both measures (especially the survey) requires further research.