Using Randomized Incidents in Prevention Research

描述(由申请人提供)： 拟议的B-START旨在试行、测试和改进一种方法，该方法使用随机激励来招募青年参加预防性干预，旨在提高对吸入性药物使用的危害性的认识。12至17岁的青年将通过街头拦截调查从当地市场和青年“热点”中招募，并将进行简短的评估。然后，青年将被邀请参加关于使用吸入剂的危害的简短教育干预。硬拒绝将被随机分配不同的奖励(从5美元到25美元不等)。这项拟议调查的目标是估计引导青年参与药物滥用预防研究所需的激励门槛，并确定与参与这些类型的计划的倾向有关的因素(例如，性别、年龄、毒品参与史)。此外，这项工作旨在澄清参与预防方案的倾向是否与对干预的反应有关(即，愿意参与较低激励门槛的青年是否从干预中获得更有利的影响)。传统的干预评估采用“意向治疗”的方法，所有被分配到干预条件下的青少年都被视为接受了干预，而不考虑干预剂量。这种方法的一个主要缺点是对那些由于选择偏见、拒绝参与等原因而无法参加研究的年轻人缺乏敏感性。这项拟议的调查旨在加强关于招募青年参加预防干预的证据，并提供关于应答者和无应答者在药物参与程度和干预反应方面的差异的经验数据。这一探索性/发展性研究路线在针对其他药物和其他健康危险行为的其他个体化干预计划中也应该具有普遍意义和适用性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed B-START seeks to pilot test and refine an approach that uses randomized incentives to recruit youth into a preventive intervention geared to increase awareness about the harmfulness of inhalant drug use. Youth aged 12 to 17 will be recruited from local markets and youth "hot spots" via street-intercept surveys, and a brief assessment will be administered. Then, youth will be invited to participate in a brief educational intervention on the hazards of inhalants use. Hard refusals will be offered varying incentives assigned at random (ranging from $5 to $25). The goal of this proposed investigation is to estimate the thresholds of incentives needed to induct youth into drug abuse prevention research and identify factors related to a propensity to engage in these types of programs (e.g. gender, age, history of drug involvement). In addition, this work aims to clarify if the propensity to engage in prevention programs is related to response to the intervention (i.e., do youth who are willing to participate at lower incentive thresholds have a more beneficial impact from the intervention). Traditional intervention evaluation uses the "intent-to-treat" approach where all youths assigned to intervention conditions are treated as though they received intervention regardless of intervention dosage. A major shortcoming of that approach is the lack of sensitivity to those youths who never made it to the study because of selection biases, refusals to participate, and so on. This proposed investigation seeks to strengthen the body of evidence on recruitment of youth into preventive interventions as well as provide empirical data on differences in responders and nonresponders regarding levels of drug involvement and intervention response. This line of exploratory/developmental research also should have general significance and applicability in other individualized intervention programs directed toward other drugs and other health risk behaviors.