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This study assesses the effectiveness of a strategy for obtaining active written parental consent for the outcome evaluation of an alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) abuse prevention program. A local school-based strategy that was implemented in 16 middle schools in ten rural and suburban school districts is presented. Using a multiple case study approach and an adequacy of performance analysis, it was found that seven of the ten districts achieved a minimum consent rate goal set at 70% (ranged from 53% to 85%, average rate of 72%). Only two districts achieved a desired consent rate of 80%. Interviews with a key contact person in each school district provided profile information that distinguished districts that were successful in implementing an active parental consent strategy from those that were not successful. A cost effectiveness analysis showed that this local school-based strategy for obtaining parental consent for program evaluation was more cost effective than in previous studies. However, more than 20% of the data collection costs involved obtaining active written consent. Methodological and practical implications are discussed.

This article examines prevalence of non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) in a sample of elementary and high school students in an Appalachian Tennessee county. We found that lifetime prevalence of NMUPD (35%) was higher than prevalence of cigarette use (28%) and marijuana use (17%), but lower than lifetime prevalence of alcohol use (46%). We examined characteristics, as well as risk and protective factors in several domains, as predictors of NMUPD. For comparison, we also examined these characteristics and factors as predictors of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Using survey data from a sample of late elementary school and high school students (grades 5, 7, 9, and 11), logistic regression analyses showed that the risk factors of friends’ non-medical use and perceived availability, and the protective factors of perceived risk, parents’ disapproval, school commitment, and community norms against youth NMUPD were significant predictors of lifetime prevalence of NMUPD. Implications for prevention are discussed.

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Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of drug abuse treatment in Peru that used the therapeutic community (TC) model. Program directors and several staff members from all study treatment facilities received two to eight weeks of in-country training on how to implement the TC treatment model prior to the follow-up study.

Liberia's prolonged post-conflict transition has negatively impacted its health infrastructure, including the functioning of its health care delivery system. Considering the current national health crises, a study was conducted to identify research gaps and the need to propose changes for improving the health care delivery system in the country. The study results clearly demonstrated a lack of HIV/AIDS research infrastructure including organizational structure, linkages, leadership, champions, expertise, resources, and policies and procedures. Alignment of research needs and practice, and research use to support HIV/AIDS service delivery programmes in the country was also limited. An international research capacity-building partnership is proposed as an effective planned change strategy to strengthen HIV/AIDS-related research infrastructure and to inform management and practice within the Liberian HIV/AIDS service delivery system. A proposed capacity-building planning model can also strengthen research infrastructure and the production and use of research to positively impact the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Liberia and other developing countries.

Youth use of harmful legal products, including inhaling or ingesting everyday household products, prescription drugs, and over-the-counter drugs, constitutes a growing health problem for American society. As such, a single targeted approach to preventing such a drug problem in a community is unlikely to be sufficient to reduce use and abuse at the youth population level. Therefore, the primary focus of this article is on an innovative, comprehensive, community-based prevention intervention. The intervention described here is based upon prior research that has a potential of preventing youth use of alcohol and other legal products. It builds upon three evidence-based prevention interventions from the substance abuse field: community mobilization, environmental strategies, and school-based prevention education intervention. The results of a feasibility project are presented and the description of a planned efficacy trial is discussed.

A social policy experiment is presented that was conducted from 1997 to 2000 in a setting with a high level of readiness for implementing a randomized experiment of therapeutic community (TC) drug treatment training in Peru. Seventy-six drug abuse treatment organizations were randomly assigned into three groups, and data were collected at multiple assessment periods. Staff and directors in organizations assigned to the training groups participated in either 6-week basic training or 8-week basic plus booster training sessions, which were theoretically grounded. Small- to medium-size positive effects were found on increased staff empowerment to use actual tools and principles from the training; medium and large positive effects were found on the implementation of TC methods with fidelity after the training. A follow-up with the funding and training organizations 1 year later showed use of the evaluation results in decision making in both organizations.