Outcomes from a randomized controlled trial of a multi-component alcohol use preventive intervention for urban youth: Project Northland Chicago
Addiction (OnlineEarly Articles) 4 February 2008

The goal of this group-randomized trial was to test the effectiveness of an adapted alcohol use preventive intervention for urban, low-income and multi-ethnic settings.

Overall, the intervention, compared with a control condition receiving ‘prevention as usual’, was not effective in reducing alcohol use, drug use or any hypothesized mediating variables (i.e. related risk and protective factors). There was a non-significant trend (P = 0.066) that suggested the ability to purchase alcohol by young-appearing buyers was reduced in the intervention communities compared to the control communities, but this could be due to chance.

Secondary outcome analyses to assess the effects of each intervention component indicated that the home-based programs were associated with reduced alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use combined (P = 0.01), with alcohol use alone approaching statistical significance (P = 0.06).

Study results indicate the importance of conducting evaluations of previously validated programs in contexts that differ from the original study sample. Also, the findings highlight the need for further research with urban, low-income adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds to identify effective methods to prevent and reduce alcohol use.

Read Full Abstract

Request Reprint E-Mail: komro@ufl.edu

____________________________________________________________