Oral

Alcohol use is pervasive among college students in the United States. Social practices that encourage drinking are embedded in multiple levels of students’ environments. High-risk drinking by college students is associated with injury, physical and sexual assault, health problems, unsafe and unplanned sexual activity, sexual harassment, impaired sleep and study time, and interpersonal problems. The response to high-risk drinking on college campuses has been dominated by individually focused approaches, such as education, counseling, and treatment. Environmental approaches to college drinking, which focus on the social, physical, economic, normative, and policy environments, have considerable promise. However, there have been very few rigorous trials that assess the efficacy of environmental approaches to college drinking. This session reports on the design and impact of the Study to Prevent Alcohol-related Problems (SPARC), which is a group-randomized trial of a community organizing approach to producing environmental changes in the community and campus environment to reduce the incidence of alcohol-related consequences. Papers included in this session: -Design of a Randomized Campus-Community Trial to Reduce High-Risk Drinking and Alcohol-Related Consequences among College Students 2-SPARC Intervention: Community organizing to produce environmental change on college campuses 3-Evaluating fidelity to the intervention model and evaluating outcomes by dose 4-Impact of a randomized trial to reduce high-risk drinking and alcohol-related consequences among college students 5-Disseminating research findings to multiple audiences

Session Objectives: Describe the background and significance of a trial testing an environmental approach to high-risk drinking by college students

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing