Social Media Interventions to Reduce Alcohol Use among Youth

 描述（由申请人提供）：尽管进行了许多干预努力，但青少年和新兴成年人中的危险饮酒仍然普遍存在，考虑到其与其他危险行为（例如，药物使用、饮酒/驾驶）和健康后果（例如，损伤、过量）。将酒精干预纳入流行的社交媒体平台是一种潜在的令人兴奋但未得到充分利用的公共卫生方法。社交媒体提供了与在线社交网络的频繁互动，增加了对同伴影响的暴露。最受欢迎的是Facebook，90%的青少年和新兴成年人至少每天都会访问Facebook帐户。与传统的静态网站干预不同， 社交媒体的一个关键特征是内容是动态的，由用户不断更新。为了改变酒精使用规范和行为，这一领域的关键知识差距是如何利用同伴互动，以增加用户生成的内容，并确定具有最大传播的干预内容。因此，拟议的研究将招募使用Facebook广告的青少年和新兴成年人（16-24岁），并进行在线电子筛查，招募850名在AUDIT-C上筛查呈阳性的危险饮酒者，进行随机对照试验，比较三种条件：8周社交媒体干预+扩散激励[即，游戏化，其中通过参与者的帖子的扩散（同伴参与者的响应）获得的积分导致货币激励]; 8周仅社交媒体干预，或8周注意力安慰剂电子新闻控制条件。干预条件将涉及访问按年龄组（16-20岁; 21-24岁）分开的秘密Facebook群组页面，由同行电子保健教练提供便利，他们将发布主要侧重于酒精使用的动态内容，但也涉及其他药物使用（非法，非医疗处方）。将在3、6和12个月时测量结局。该研究的具体目的是：1）开发和测试干预条件与对照条件相比在减少危险饮酒和酒精相关后果方面的功效; 2）比较参与者参与和酒精相关结果的积极干预条件;以及3）检查干预条件（即，Facebook指标）和干预参与的特征（即，情绪分析）与酒精相关的结果有关。此外，次要目的是检查：1）：与对照条件相比，干预措施在减少其他药物使用方面的有效性; 2）性别，年龄组（16-20岁; 21- 24岁）和基线社交网络因素作为结果的调节因素;以及，3）干预措施的成本，以提供数据，为未来使用社交媒体的公共卫生干预措施提供信息。这些创新的设计特点将提供关键的 公共卫生工作的下一个步骤是通过利用社交媒体来利用同伴的影响，并使用熟悉的平台提供干预措施，以减少危险饮酒。这项研究的结果可能会通过改变青少年和新兴成年人的酒精风险轨迹，预防健康后果以及酒精使用障碍的发展来产生巨大的公共卫生影响。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite numerous intervention efforts, risky drinking among adolescents and emerging adults remains prevalent, which is concerning given its association with other risk behaviors (e.g., drug use, drinking/driving) and health consequences (e.g., injury, overdose). The integration of alcohol interventions into popular social media platforms is a potentially exciting yet underutilized public health approach. Social media provides frequent interaction with online social networks, increasing exposure to peer influences. The most popular is Facebook, with 90% of adolescents and emerging adults having Facebook accounts that they access at least daily. Unlike traditional static website interventions, a key feature of social media is that content is dynamic, being constantly updated by users. In order to change alcohol use norms and behaviors, critical knowledge gaps in this area are how to capitalize on peer interaction in order to increase user-generated content, and identify intervention content that has the greatest diffusion. Thus, the proposed study will recruit adolescents and emerging adults (ages 16-24) using Facebook ads, and conduct online e-screening, enrolling 850 risky drinkers, who screen positive on the AUDIT-C, in a randomized controlled trial comparing three conditions: 8- week Social Media Intervention + Diffusion Incentives [i.e., gamification in which points earned for diffusion of participant's posts (responses by peer participants) result in monetary incentives]; 8-week Social Media Intervention Only, or 8-week attention placebo e-news control condition. Intervention conditions will involve access to secret Facebook group pages, separate by age group (16-20; 21-24), facilitated by peer e-health coaches, who will post dynamic content primarily focusing on alcohol use, but also addressing other drug use (illicit, non-medical prescription). Outcomes will be measured at 3, 6, and 12 months. The specific aims of the study are to: 1) develop and test the efficacy of intervention conditions compared to the control condition, in reducing risky drinking and alcohol related consequences; 2) compare active intervention conditions on participant engagement and alcohol-related outcomes; and, 3) examine how level of engagement in intervention conditions (i.e., Facebook metrics) and characteristics of intervention engagement (i.e., sentiment analysis) relate to alcohol-related outcomes. In addition, secondary aims are to examine: 1): the efficacy of the interventions, compared to the control condition, on reducing other drug use; 2) gender, age group (16-20; 21- 24), and baseline social network factors as moderators of outcome; and, 3) costs of the interventions to provide data to inform future public health interventions using social media. These innovative design features will provide the critical next step in public health efforts to reduce risky drinking, by capitalizing on social media to harness peer influences and deliver interventions using a familiar platform. Findings from this study could have enormous public health impact by altering the alcohol risk trajectories of adolescents and emerging adults, preventing health consequences as well as the development of alcohol use disorders.