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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

James Sexton, PhD¹, Salvatore Libretto, PhD¹, Y. Henry Wong, PhD¹, and Susanna Nemes, PhD². (1) Public Health Research, Danya International, Inc., 8737 Colesville Road, Suite 1100, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 240-645-1752, jsexton@danya.com, (2) Social Solutions, International, Inc., 18303 Wickham Road, Olney, MD 20832

The Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Screening Instrument for Primary Care (ADASI-PC) is a research-based, computerized, self-administered screening instrument designed for primary care providers to identify youth at risk for substance use and/or abuse and also serves as an intervention. Consequences of substance use and abuse include both immediate and such long-term effects as traffic and other accidents, violence and suicide, overdose death, HIV and liver infections, heart and respiratory disease, cancers, mental illness, and addiction. There is an obvious need for preventive and educational messages for adolescents in primary healthcare settings. Studies have shown that adolescents may be particularly responsive to primary care-based prevention messages directed at modifying risky behaviors, promoting healthy habits, and improving health. The ADASI-PC instrument was designed for use in primary care settings to determine a youth's use or no use status, low or high risk status, and experimental or dependent substance use level. The motivational messages are linked to the adolescent's responses to different questions, and provide prevention tips and referrals. This presentation will describe the development and evaluation of the instrument, including youth focus group and expert panel feedback and a test with healthcare providers. Research was conducted in a variety of settings, including primary care clinicians, pediatricians, nurses, and other professionals who work with the target-age population. The pilot test results will be presented, as well as the data from the evaluation that will be used to revise the algorithms of risk, and demonstrate the willingness of participants to disclose current usage.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Identify the steps involved in the process of developing a drug and alcohol screening instrument.
• Recognize the factors that place adolescents at risk for increased substance use or dependence.
• Construct the cutoff for the relative level of usage for different substances, based on the adolescent’s demographics.
• Discuss the use of motivational messages and brief provider interventions to address adolescent drug and alcohol use/dependence.

Keywords: Adolescents, Assessments

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: This is a product under investigational work as part of a grant from NIDA.

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