The Birmingham News
College freshmen who take an online alcohol prevention course may drink less, but the effects don’t last long, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Researchers looked at the effectiveness of a commercial course against binge drinking called AlcoholEdu, which is often offered just before freshmen arrive on campus. They conducted a randomized trial at 30 public and private universities in the United States, giving half the freshmen the course and then following up with surveys with some of them. They found that students who took the class reported significantly less alcohol use and binge drinking during the fall compared with the other students. But the results didn’t last into the spring semester; the authors suggest that other methods are needed to reinforce the message.
[NOTE: Colleges could use the American Character Builders kit, “Alcohol–It’s a Killer!” as a follow-up later in the year. For more information concerning this and other programs available from American Character Builders, go to www.AmericanCharacterBuilders.org.]
