Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention in a College Student Health Center: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: This study tested the effectiveness of brief primary care provider interventions delivered in a college student health center to a sample of college students who screened positive for highrisk drinking. Method: Between November 2005 and August 2006, 8,753 students who presented as new patients to the health service at a large public university were screened for high-risk drinking, and 2,484 students (28%) screened positive on the 5/4 gender-specifi c high-risk drinking question (i.e., fi ve or more drinks per occasion for men and four or more for women). Students who screened positive for high-risk drinking and consented to participate (N = 363; 52% female) were randomly assigned either to a control group (n = 182) or to an experimental group (n = 181). Participants in the experimental group received two brief intervention sessions that were founded in motivational interviewing techniques and delivered by four specially trained providers within the student health center. Data on alcohol use and related harms were obtained from a Web-based Healthy Lifestyle Questionnaire, 30-day Timeline Followback alcohol-use diaries, the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI), and eight items from the Drinker Inventory of Consequences-2L. Results: Repeated measures analysis showed that, compared with the control group (C), the intervention group (I) had signifi cant reductions in typical estimated blood alcohol concentration (BAC) (C = .071 vs I = .057 at 3 months; C = .073 vs I = .057 at 6 months), peak BAC (C = .142 vs I = .112 at 3 months; C = .145 vs I = .108 at 6 months), peak number of drinks per sitting (C = 8.03 vs I = 6.87 at 3 months; C = 7.98 vs I = 6.52 at 6 months), average number of drinks per week (C = 9.47 vs I = 7.33 at 3 months; C = 8.90 vs I = 6.16 at 6 months), number of drunk episodes in a typical week (C = 1.24 vs I = 0.85 at 3 months; C = 1.10 vs I = 0.71 at 6 months), number of times taken foolish risks (C = 2.24 vs I = 1.12 at 3 months), and RAPI sum scores (C = 6.55 vs I = 4.96 at 6 months; C = 6.17 vs I = 4.58 at 9 months). Conclusions: Brief interventions delivered by primary care providers in a student health center to high-risk-drinking students may result in signifi cantly decreased alcohol consumption, high-risk drinking, and alcohol-related harms. (J. Stud.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Motivational Interviewing With Feedback to Reduce Drinking Among a Sample of College Students

“…Participants also were invited to complete briefer assessments of drinking and other behaviors by Internet survey 3, 6, and 12 months after baseline. Because evidence suggests that the strongest effect for a brief intervention is at 3 months, with steady decline over time in group differences and in maintaining lower drinking levels (Carey et al, 2009;Cunningham et al, 2010;Schaus et al, 2009), the current study used the effectiveness measures at the 3-month follow-up. Incentives to participate were $10 for the initial baseline assessment and $20 for the 3-month follow-up assessment.…”

“…MI is a directive, client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence (Miller and Rollnick, 2002). Most of these studies found reduced drinking among students (Baer et al, 2001;Cronce, 2002, 2007;Murphy et al, 2004;Schaus et al, 2009;Tevyaw et al, 2007;Turrisi et al, 2009;Walters et al, 2009;White et al, 2006), and some found reduced drinking among freshmen specifi cally (e.g., Baer et al, 2001).…”

Efetividade da intervenção breve para o uso abusivo de álcool na atenção primária: revisão sistemática

“…Algumas publicações científicas encontradas selecionaram uma população amostral adolescente (10,13,16,28) . Considerando que o contato ou a experimentação de substâncias psicoativas parece ser inevitável para a maioria das pessoas desse grupo etário, a orientação preventiva parece minimizar as conseqüências observadas em jovens que cumprem medidas protetivas, por exemplo, conforme verificado em população estudada (16) .…”

Pušenje i alkoholizam: učestalost u populaciji studenata

“…U Grčkoj, studenti medicine muškog pola konzumiraju u proseku 92ml alkohola nedeljno, dok studentkinje piju u proseku 48ml za isti period [40]. U Orlandu, u istraživanju sprovedenom na populaciji studenata koledža, došlo se do podatka da je prosečan broj pića u toku nedelje u prva tri meseca u toku istraživanja bio 10, a u šestomesečnom periodu 9 [48].…”

“…Ustanovljeno je da je, i u tromesečnom i u šestomesečnom periodu, maksimalan broj pića u jednoj prilici bio osam. Studenti su imali u proseku po jednu epizodu opijanja nedeljno u tromesečnom i šestomesečnom periodu [48]. U istoj studiji, u toku 2005. i 2006. godine, studenti koledža su prijavili u proseku 9 dana konzumiranja alkohola mesečno, a od toga 5 dana sa teškim opijanjem [46].…”