Preventing alcohol use among late adolescent urban youth: 6-year results from a computer-based intervention

OBJECTIVE

This study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of a skills-based CD-ROM intervention, with and without a parent component, to reduce alcohol use among urban youth at 6-year follow-up.

METHOD

At recruitment, 513 youths with a mean age of 10.8 years were randomly assigned to one of three study arms: youth CD-ROM intervention plus parent component, youth CD-ROM intervention only, or control. All youths completed pretest, posttest, and annual follow-up measures. Youths and parents in their respective arms received the initial intervention program between pretest and posttest measures and received booster interventions between each follow-up measure.

RESULTS

With 80% sample retention at 6-year follow-up, youths in both intervention arms reported less past-month alcohol and cigarette use and fewer instances of heavy drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences. Despite having similar numbers of drinking peers as youths in the control arm, youths in both intervention arms reported greater alcohol-refusal skills. Only past-month cigarette use differed between the two intervention arms, with youths in the intervention-plus-parent-component arm smoking less than youths in the CD-ROM intervention-only arm.

CONCLUSIONS

Six years after initial intervention, youths who received a culturally tailored, skills-based prevention program had reduced alcohol use and lower rates of related risky behaviors than youths in the control arm.

Shake, rattle & roll: 24 revolutionary technologies

The tools of tomorrow are here today. Our expert finds the technologies that will actually make a difference in your strategies, your company, and your life.

[CD-ROM--a useful tool for physicians]

The use of compact disc read-only-memory (CD-ROM) at a medical library is described. The introduction of CD-ROM as a reference tool has been a positive experience both for the library staff and the end users (doctors). Medical journals in fulltext, textbooks and special databases are already available on CD-Rom. Future perspectives concerning CD-technology for doctors are discussed.

[Literature searching on CD-ROM disks]

CD-ROM, Compact Disk Read Only Memory, is a powerful resource which combines the best features of both online and print access to the literature. In 1988 the Medical Library in Trondheim installed the Medline database from Dialog on CD-ROM for library users, and used the opportunity to launch a study to evaluate the new medium in the library (use, users, costs, etc.). The results are based on 651 questionnaires answered by 185 different users. Totally they searched for more than 1,200 different subjects during first six months that the library subscribed to the CD-ROM-disks. All users said that the system was easy to learn and to use (even the 50% who were not familiar with a PC). The study shows that retrieving information from CD-ROM databases is an easy and popular way to keep updated in a particular field.