Testing alcohol prevention strategies using high validity-field experiments

描述（由申请人提供）：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措施和预防计划是减少饮酒负面影响的一种解决方案。开发严格的方法来测试新的理论和评估干预活动是在酒精危害预防领域的进一步发展必不可少的。然而，目前广泛使用的方法也有局限性。例如，实验室研究提供了相当多的科学控制，但通常发生在生态真空中，缺乏现实世界的背景，影响风险饮酒决策的因素和力量。在实验室中发现有效的干预策略在实地可能不起作用。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。预防研究领域将大大受益于采取的方法，使科学家能够行使实验控制范围内的真实的-世界，高风险的饮酒和吸毒环境。本申请提出了两项研究，旨在测试一种新的方法来研究饮酒行为的可行性：一个现场实验与饮酒行为的客观措施和酒精剂量的研究。拟议的方法是根据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发展而来的。 与公共卫生的相关性：酒精估计占世界疾病负担的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计划是减少酒精相关危害的一种方法。本申请描述了一种新的研究方法，旨在授予预防研究人员严格的实验控制和高生态有效性。如果发现可行，这种方法可以促进减少酒精相关危害的新策略的发展。

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.