Impact of a randomized trial to reduce high-risk drinking and alcohol-related consequences among college students

The Study to Prevent Alcohol-Related Consequences (SPARC) was a five-year NIAAA-funded randomized trial that tested a comprehensive intervention using a community organizing approach to implement environmental strategies in and around college campuses. To assess the impact of SPARC on high-risk drinking and alcohol-related consequences, multiple data collection protocols were used. Three methods assessed the impact of SPARC: (1) the College Drinking Survey (a web-based survey of students), (2) the Resident Advisor Survey, and (3) Incident and Injury Reports. Results indicate that the intervention showed significant effects on several indicators of alcohol-related problems. Based on all four waves of data from the annual College Drinking Survey, we found decreases in the intervention group compared to the control group in Severe Consequences due to the students' own drinking (p=0.02) and Alcohol-related Injuries caused by others (p=0.03). In secondary analyses, we found that higher levels of implementation of SPARC at the school level are associated with reductions in Number of Days Drunk in the past week (p< 0.01) and the Number of Days Drinking in the past 30 days (p=0.04). In secondary analyses, we found that higher levels of implementation of SPARC at the school level are associated with reductions in RA reports of alcohol-related incidents related to Consequences, Environment, and Activities (p<.03 in each case). Finally, in the Injury and Incident Reports, we found significantly fewer alcohol citations reported by police in the intervention schools compared to the control schools over a 20 month period (p<.001).