Moore RS, Gilder DA, Grube JW, Lee JP, Geisler JA, Friese B, Calac DJ, Finan LJ, Ehlers CL. Am. J. Public Health 2018; 108(8): 1035-1041.
Affiliation
Roland S. Moore, Joel W. Grube, Juliet P. Lee, Bettina Friese, and Laura J. Finan are with Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Berkeley, CA. David A. Gilder and Cindy L. Ehlers are with the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. Jennifer A. Geisler was with and Daniel J. Calac is with the Southern California Tribal Health Center.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate combined individual- and community-level interventions to reduce underage drinking by American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youths on rural California Indian reservations.
METHODS: Individual-level interventions included brief motivational interviewing and psychoeducation for Tribal youths. Community-level interventions included community mobilization and awareness activities, as well as restricting alcohol sales to minors. To test effects, we compared 7 waves of California Healthy Kids Survey data (2002-2015) for 9th- and 11th-grade AI/AN and non-AI/AN students in intervention area schools with California AI/AN students outside the intervention area (n = 617, n = 33 469, and n = 976, respectively).
RESULTS: Pre- to postintervention mean past 30-day drinking frequency declined among current drinkers in the intervention group (8.4-6.3 days) relative to comparison groups. Similarly, heavy episodic drinking frequency among current drinkers declined in the intervention group (7.0-4.8 days) versus the comparison groups.
CONCLUSIONS: This study documented significant, sustained past 30-day drinking or heavy episodic drinking frequency reductions among AI/AN 9th- and 11th-grade current drinkers in rural California Indian reservation communities exposed to multilevel interventions. Public Health Implications. Multilevel community-partnered interventions can effectively reduce underage alcohol use in this population. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 21, 2018: e1-e7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304447).