Citation

Collins SE, Kirouac M, Lewis MA, Witkiewitz K, Carey KB. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 2014; 75(6): 982-992.

Affiliation

Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, Rhode Island.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

25343656

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Web-based personalized feedback interventions, particularly personalized normative feedback (PNF), are efficacious in improving college drinking outcomes; however, no personalized feedback interventions to date have provided college drinkers with feedback about their own decisional balance. This study tested the relative efficacy of a novel decisional balance feedback (DBF) intervention, PNF, and an assessment-only control condition.

METHOD: Participants (N = 724; 56% female) were undergraduate students at a 4-year university in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and were randomized to receive one-time exposure to web-based DBF, PNF, or assessment only. Web-based assessment occurred at baseline and at 1-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups and included measures of motivation to change, drinking quantity norms, drinking frequency/quantity, and alcohol-related problems.

RESULTS: At the 1-month follow-up, DBF and PNF participants reported reductions in alcohol-related problems; however, only PNF participants reduced their drinking frequency and quantity. At the 6-month follow-up, only DBF participants showed significant reductions in drinking quantity and alcohol-related problems. Neither group maintained reductions in alcohol use or alcohol-related problems at the 12-month follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS: This study provided preliminary evidence that web-based DBF and PNF are efficacious interventions for college drinkers, with DBF having somewhat longer lasting effects. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 75, 982-992, 2014).

Language: en