Brief alcohol interventions by counselor and computer

描述（由申请人提供）：有害的酗酒在大学校园中经常发生，损害学生的学习成绩、社会关系和身心健康。虽然研究文件表明，咨询师提供的简短动机干预（bmi）可靠地减少了饮酒和相关问题，但bmi产生的影响往往是中小型的，而且这些影响并不总是保持不变，特别是在违反校园酒精政策的学生中。因此，为了促进学生的健康和安全，需要改进bmi指数，以提高观察到的效果的幅度，并保持减少风险的成果。此外，为了推进健康行为改变科学，研究需要提高对短暂干预发挥其有益影响的机制的理解。拟议的研究将通过开发一种理论指导的、低成本的电子邮件助推器（e-booster）来扩大和维持BMI的影响，从而改善BMI引发的变化。e-booster将使用现有的分发技术在BMI（当有益效果开始衰减时）后4到12周之间交付，并将针对假设的变化机制；也就是说，电子助推信息将加强和扩展BMI的规范反馈成分，并促使同行讨论规范数据。本研究将分两部分完成。第一阶段将涉及对200名学生饮酒者的形成性研究，以发展和完善电子助推器和健康行为控制信息。第二阶段将涉及一项随机对照试验（RCT），共有596名因违反校园酒精相关政策而被转诊的学生。在这项随机对照试验中，所有被推荐的学生都将收到一个BMI指数，然后他们将被随机分配到两个结构等效的强化条件之一：a)带有纠正规范信息的电子强化条件或b)健康促进电子邮件的对照系列。两种情况下的学生都将接受基线评估，接受BMI，并在BMI后1、3、5、8和12个月返回进行随访评估。主要成果将是酒精消费和与酒精有关的问题；假设的中介变量将包括描述性和禁令规范以及同伴沟通。建议的设计将允许分析：a)记录最初的bmi引起的变化；B)确定电子助推器是否随着时间的推移增强或维持风险降低；c)检验假设的中介机制。这项研究将通过为预防酗酒提供更有力的干预措施来促进公众健康，并将通过确定社会认知机制来促进预防科学，通过简短的干预来改变饮酒行为。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Harmful binge drinking occurs frequently on college campuses, undermining students' academic performance, social relationships, and somatic and mental health. Although research documents that counselor-delivered, brief motivational interventions (BMIs) reliably reduce drinking and related problems, the effects produced by BMIs tend to be small-to-medium in size and these effects are not always maintained, especially among students who have violated campus alcohol policies. Thus, to promote student health and safety, BMIs need to be improved to enhance the magnitude of the observed effects and maintain risk-reduction gains. In addition, to advance the science of health behavior change, research needs to improve understanding of the mechanisms by which brief interventions exert their beneficial impact. The proposed research will improve BMI-initiated change by developing a theoretically-guided, low-cost, e-mail booster (e-booster) to magnify and sustain the effects of BMI. The e-booster will be delivered using existing distribution technology between four to twelve weeks after the BMI (when beneficial effects begin to decay) and will target the hypothesized mechanisms of change; that is, e- booster messages will reinforce and expand upon the normative feedback component of the BMI and prompt peer discussion regarding normative data. The proposed research will be completed in two parts. Phase I will involve formative research to develop and refine e-booster and health behavior control messages with 200 student drinkers. Phase II will involve a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 596 students referred for violating alcohol-related policy on campus. In this RCT, all referred students will receive a BMI, and then they will be randomized to one of two structurally-equivalent booster conditions: a) e-booster with corrective norms messages or b) a control series of health promotion e-mails. Students in both conditions will undergo a baseline assessment, receive a BMI, and return for follow-up assessments at 1, 3, 5, 8, and 12 months post-BMI. Key outcomes will be alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems; hypothesized mediating variables will include descriptive and injunctive norms as well as peer communication. The proposed design will permit analyses that a) document initial BMI-induced changes; b) determine whether the e-booster enhances or maintains risk reduction over time; and c) test the hypothesized mediational mechanisms. This research will advance public health by providing a more powerful intervention for alcohol abuse prevention, and will advance prevention science by identifying social-cognitive mechanisms by which brief interventions change drinking behavior. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Brief alcohol interventions reduce drinking and alcohol consequences among at-risk college drinkers. This research aims to strengthen outcomes of these interventions with an e-mail- delivered booster (e-booster) consisting of a series of brief messages designed to correct exaggerated drinking norms. More effective interventions are needed to reduce unnecessary alcohol-related harms among young adults in college.