Evaluation of Proggrams Attempting to Reduce Heavy Drinking in a College Environment - Essay Example

Evaluating Programs Attempting To Reduce Heavy Drinking In a College Environment Evaluating Programs Attempting ToReduce Heavy Drinking In a College Environment Heavy drinking in the college environment is a serious societal problem. Specifically, alcoholism refers to a medical condition where people crave for alcohol, lose control in limiting drinking, and develop tolerance for alcohol, and withdrawal symptoms after stopping to drink. Moreover, heavy drinking has adverse effects on the students that may include absenteeism, withdrawal, premature sexual engagements, sexually transmitted diseases, stress, liver, and heart diseases, and in many cases, it leads to poor academic results (Kremer & Levy, 2008). Nevertheless, subject to its dire effects, there have been concerned efforts to reduce heavy drinking in a college environment. There are different programs that seek to reduce heavy drinking in a college environment and an evaluation on these programs can determine their effectiveness in curbing this societal vice. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate some of the programs attempting to reduce heavy drinking in a college environment with aim of establishing their effectiveness. I will hence review four peer reviews with studies on reducing dangerous drinking in the college environment to derive a conclusion. Bendtsen, P et al (2012). Effectiveness of a Proactive Mail-Based Alcohol Internet Intervention for University Students: Dismantling the Assessment and Feedback Components in Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research,14(5). Bendtsen et al (2012 suggest a proactive mail-based alcohol Internet interventions that seek to provide feedback on alcohol consumption and suggest modes of reducing drinking. The authors sought to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention using a randomized controlled trial design. The study established no differences between groups in all alcohol parameters at the end of the research period. However, the study reveals few beneficial effects to risky drinkers that relate to weekly consumption of alcohol. The evaluation therefore revealed the conservative nature of the evaluation and probable small benefits on the consumption of alcohol by the risky drinkers. Doumas, D et al (2009). Evaluation of two Web-based alcohol interventions for mandated college students. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 36 (2009) 65–74. Doumas, D et al (2009) aimed at evaluating the efficacy of two Web-based interventions that seek to reduce heavy drinking in a college environment. In carrying out the study, the authors randomly assigned mandated students to either Web-based personalized normative feedback or on Web-based education. Notably, the study revealed that there is significant effectiveness in mandated students who reduce drinking in the Web-based personalized normative feedback. More so, there were significant reductions in estimates of peer drinking in Web-based personalized normative feedback than on Web-based education. Additionally, there were changes in estimates of peer drinking. As such, the study favoured the Web-based personalized normative feedback on mandated college students. Moore, M., Soderquist, J., & Werch, J (2007). Feasibility and Efficacy of a Binge Drinking Prevention Intervention for College Students Delivered via the Internet Versus Postal Mail. Journal of American College Health, 54 (1). Moore, M., Soderquist, J., & Werch, J (2007) evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of a binge drinking prevention intervention for college students delivered via the Internet versus a parallel print-based intervention delivered via postal mail. The authors used a standardized online 42-item survey to collect data on a baseline study involving 116 college students. They established the feasibility of an Internet-based binge drinking prevention intervention for college students. However, the survey established no significant differences on outcome measures when delivered via the Internet or postal mail. As such, the study derived independence of the efficacy of the intervention from the mode of delivery. More so, the results favoured the use of the internet in health intervention delivery over the cultural delivery means. Lau-Barraco,C & Dunn, M (2008). Evaluation of a Single-Session Expectancy Challenge Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use among College Students. American Psychological Association, 22(2),168–175. Lau-Barraco, C & Dunn, M (2008) study evaluates the single-session experiential expectancy challenge intervention, that sought to reduce drinking levels by changing the motivating factors that lead to drinking among college students. Ideally, 217 randomly selected students attend a 90- to 120-min session. The study found no significant changes in a control condition but reveals substantial decreases in alcohol expectancies and resultant consumption in both genders. As such, this became the first intervention method to guarantee effective decrease expectancies and drinking in college students with a single-session intervention. Moore et al (2007) carried out an “Alcohol & You” baseline survey from a sample of 116 college students aged 18 to 25 years and sampled from three college courses. The study randomized the students into the Web or print group to complete a four weekly “newsletters” in electronic or print format where one hundred and six students completed the post-test intervention study. The authors collected data using a standardized online 42-item survey. Ideally, the baseline demographics between the two groups were almost the same. The intervention materials included suggested health-risk messages aimed at showing the perceived threat and the perceived efficacy of the recommended response to decrease the threat. The 42-item questionnaire collected data on alcohol consumption, social desirability, sociodemographics, and risk and protective factors. The study established the feasibility of an Internet-based binge drinking prevention intervention for college students. It also established no significant difference from the mode of delivery. The study also failed to relate the efficacy of the intervention with the mode of delivery. Moreover, the results favoured the use of the internet in health intervention delivery over the post mail delivery means. Indeed, internet-based prevention efforts are cost-effective, efficient, and effective in promoting health and improving consumer satisfaction. However, these results cannot represent the entire population since the participants were volunteers who got incentives to participate. Additionally, students self-reported the data hence chances of bias, errors, and social pressure on the results. More so, the study lacked a true control mechanism. On the other hand, Bendtsen et al (2012) sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a proactive mail-based alcohol internet intervention for university students. The randomized controlled trial design used a dismantling design to carry out a survey on 5227 students. The survey divided the sample into three random groups that sought outline practice assessment and feedback, assessment-only without feedback, and neither assessment nor feedback. The alcohol survey was through questionnaires, participants were not aware of their participation, and there was automation of all interventions. There were no differences between groups in all alcohol parameters at the end. A percentage of 4.69 of the sample completed the survey; attrition was 40.01% in groups 1, 42.31% in-group 2, and 51.75% in-group 3. More so, the results suggested foreseeable small beneficial effects on weekly consumption attributable to feedback. As such, this mode of intervention is highly conservative and effective as small benefits may follow the risky drinkers. However, there are problems of non-equivalence between the groups and hence bias in direct comparisons. Moreover, this study was not original as it occurred in preparation of a subsequent large trial. Moreover, Lau-Barraco & Dunn (2008) sought to develop and evaluate a single-session experiential expectancy challenge intervention, aiming at reducing alcohol use by changing key positive expectancies among all drinkers in the college. There were 239 participants from undergraduate psychology students from a large state university carrying out a survey on “college student drinking.” Participants had to have had two or more heavy episodic drinking occasions in the previous 30 days, had drunk 5 or more but fewer than 40 standard drinks weekly, and had no history of alcohol treatment. The survey subjected the participants to evaluation on pre-test, post-test, and 1-month follow-up. About 217 students completed the survey and results showed no difference pre-test and follow-up in all conditions. They also showed that participants in the three conditions were similar in age, gender, ethnicity, and baseline typical alcohol consumption. This intervention is quite effective in that it is the first study to decrease expectancies and drinking in college students with a single-session EC intervention. Moreover, it includes women and avails a more practical format that effectively reduces drinking in colleges. Most studies focus on men. However, the time taken to participate in the study and deduce results is significantly limited and may not produce reliable results. On the other hand, Doumas et al (2009) sought to evaluate the efficacy of two Web-based interventions aimed at reducing heavy drinking in mandated college students. The authors randomly assigned the participants into two conditions namely Web-based personalized normative feedback (WPNF) or Web-based education (WE). The participants were students referred to University Counselling Services for violating the University policy for alcohol and other drugs. Specifically, 76 students aged between 18 and 24 participated in the survey where 72.4% were male and 27.6% were female. The survey assigned 31 students to the WE condition and 45 students to the WPNF condition. After a 30-day follow-up, the results indicated no difference in the rate of attrition across the two intervention groups. Mandated students in the WPNF intervention group reduced their drinking significantly than participants in the WE condition drink in the weekly consumption. Moreover, mandated students in the WPNF group reduced their frequency of drinking to intoxication by 19% while the WE reduced intoxication by 10%. This intervention is relevant and effective in that deals with different range of drinkers and produce encouraging results. Indeed, this intervention is significant in developing early intervention programs for mandated college students. However, the sample taken for the evaluation was relatively small and attrition rate limit the generalizability of this study. Indeed, results show that attrition was not relevant to this study. Notably, the four articles relate to one another as the all seek to evaluate the internet related intervention measures geared towards reducing heavy drinking among college students. More so, they establish the effectiveness, strengths, and limitations of the proposed intervention measures. They all address alcoholism among male students apart from Lau-Barraco & Dunn (2008) who address this problem among both males and females. I can conclude that dangerous drinking is a serious problem in our college environment and the intervention measures seeking to curb this problem are necessary. The four articles effectively evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions. However, I recommend for future research with larger sample sizes and an objective consideration of the randomized and inconsistent comparisons of populations that establish the effectiveness of these interventions. References Bendtsen, P et al. (2012). Effectiveness of a Proactive Mail-Based Alcohol Internet Intervention for University Students: Dismantling the Assessment and Feedback Components in Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research,14(5). Doumas, D et al. (2009). Evaluation of two Web-based alcohol interventions for mandated college students. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 36 (2009) 65–74. Kremer, M., & Levy, D. (2008). Peer Effects and Alcohol Use among College Students. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(3): 189-206. Lau-Barraco,C & Dunn, M. (2008). Evaluation of a Single-Session Expectancy Challenge Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use among College Students. American Psychological Association, 22(2),168–175. Moore, M., Soderquist, J., & Werch, J. (2007). Feasibility and Efficacy of a Binge Drinking Prevention Intervention for College Students Delivered via the Internet Versus Postal Mail. Journal of American College Health, 54 (1). Read More