Citation

Lammers J, Goossens F, Conrod PJ, Engels R, Wiers RW, Kleinjan M. Addiction 2015; 110(7): 1101-1109.

Affiliation

Trimbos Institute (Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction), Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/add.12952

PMID

25892544

Abstract

AIM: The effectiveness of Preventure was tested on drinking behaviour of young adolescents in secondary education in The Netherlands.

DESIGN: A cluster randomized controlled trial was carried out, with participants randomly assigned to a 2-session coping skills intervention or a control no-intervention condition. SETTING: Fifteen secondary schools throughout The Netherlands; 7 schools in the intervention and 8 schools in the control condition. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 699 adolescents aged 13-15 participated, 343 allocated to the intervention and 356 to the control condition; with drinking experience and elevated scores in either negative thinking, anxiety sensitivity, impulsivity or sensation seeking. INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR: Preventure is a selective school-based alcohol prevention programme targeting personality risk factors. The comparator was a no-intervention control. MEASUREMENTS: The effects of the intervention on the primary outcome past-month binge drinking, and the secondary outcomes binge drinking frequency, alcohol use, alcohol frequency and problem drinking, were examined. The primary analyses of interest were intervention main effects at 12 months post-intervention. In addition, intervention effects on the linear development of binge drinking using a latent-growth curve approach were examined.

FINDINGS: Binge drinking rates were not significantly different between the intervention (42.9%) and control group (49.2%) at 12 months follow-up (OR = 1.05, CI = 0.99,1.11). Intention to treat analyses revealed no significant intervention effects on alcohol use (53.9% vs. 61.5%; OR = 0.99, CI = 0.86,1.14) and problem drinking (37.0% vs. 44.7%; OR = 1.01, CI = 0.92,1.10) at 12 months follow-up. The post-hoc latent-growth analyses revealed significant effects on the development of binge drinking (β = -.16, p = 0.05), and binge drinking frequency (β = -.14, p = 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The alcohol prevention programme, Preventure, appears to have little or no effect on overall prevalence of binge drinking in adolescents in the Netherlands but may reduce the development of binge drinking over time.

Language: en