Testing alcohol prevention strategies using high validity-field experiments

描述(申请人提供)：酒精消费仍然是世界各地伤害和死亡的主要原因，开发有效的、可复制的和基于理论的干预和预防计划是减少饮酒负面影响的解决方案之一。为测试新理论和评估干预活动制定严格的方法，对于酒精危害预防领域的进一步发展至关重要。然而，目前广泛使用的方法是有局限性的。例如，实验室研究提供了相当大的科学控制，但通常发生在生态真空中，没有影响危险饮酒决定的现实环境、因素和力量。在实验室中被发现有效的干预策略可能不会在“现场”发挥同样的作用。相反，实地研究和应用研究方法往往缺乏实验控制，例如随机分配条件。如果采用允许科学家在现实世界、高风险饮酒和吸毒环境中进行实验控制的方法，预防研究领域将受益匪浅。这项申请提出了两项旨在测试研究饮酒行为的新方法的可行性的研究：一项是对饮酒行为进行客观测量的现场实验，另一项是酒精剂量研究。拟议的方法是从太平洋研究和评价研究所在创建和使用实地调查技术方面所做的研究演变而来的。 与公共卫生相关：据估计，酒精占世界疾病负担的4%，每年导致近200万人死亡。制定和确定有效的干预措施和预防方案是减少与酒精有关的伤害的一种方法。这项申请描述了一种新的研究方法，旨在为预防研究人员提供严格的实验控制和高生态有效性。如果被发现是可行的，这种方法可以促进减少酒精相关伤害的新策略的开发。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alcohol consumption remains a leading cause of injury and death around the world, and the development of effective, replicable, and theory-based interventions and prevention programs is one solution for reducing the negative effect of drinking. The development of rigorous methodologies for testing new theories and for evaluating intervention activities is essential for further growth in the alcohol-harm prevention field. There are limits, however, to current and widely used methodologies. Laboratory studies, for example, offer considerable scientific control but typically occur within an ecological vacuum, void of the real-world contexts, factors, and forces that affect risky-drinking decisions. Intervention strategies found to be effective in the lab may not function as well "in the field." Conversely, field studies and applied research methods often lack experimental control, such as random assignment to conditions. The field of prevention research would benefit greatly from the adoption of methodologies that allow scientists to exercise experimental control within the context of real- world, high-risk drinking and drugging environments. This application proposes two studies designed to test the feasibility of a new methodology for studying drinking behavior: a field experiment with objective measures of drinking behavior and an alcohol-dosing study. The proposed methodology has evolved from studies done by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in creating and using field survey techniques. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Alcohol contributes an estimated 4% to the world's disease burden resulting in almost 2 million deaths per year. Developing and identifying effective interventions and prevention programs is one approach to reducing alcohol-related harm. This application describes a new research methodology designed to grant prevention researchers both rigorous experiment control and high-ecological validity. If found to be feasible, this method could promote the development of new strategies for reducing alcohol-related harm.