Ehlers Group to Participate in New Underage Drinking Prevention Research

The Scripps Research group of Associate Professor Cindy Ehlers will help design, implement, and evaluate a new program recently funded by a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant was awarded to a team from: The Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, and the Indian Health Council in Pauma Valley, California. The Indian Health Council is the primary provider of medical services to Native Americans in nine North County reservations. The aim of the grant is to build a program of primary care services and community action to prevent underage drinking in Native American young people.

Underage drinking is a major problem nationally as well as in some rural Native American communities. Dr. Ehlers' recently published studies have demonstrated that youth who begin drinking before the age of 13 may have as much as an 85% chance of developing alcohol dependence in their lifetime. It appears that the older a young person is when they start drinking the less likely they are to develop alcohol dependence.

Young people between the ages of 8 and 21 as well as parents, community members, schools, law enforcement, and healthcare systems in Pauma Valley and Santa Ysabel, California, will participate in designing and testing the program to prevent underage drinking. The program will involve assessing drinking and its negative consequences, treatment for alcohol problems, and a community-wide program to limit access to alcohol by youth living on the nine north county reservations and surrounding rural areas.

The research is funded by the NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Findings may ultimately have wider application not only to rural Native American communities but also to other rural communities as well.