Effects of a 2.5-year college-wide intervention to reduce high-risk drinking

Objectives: This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education to help Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) students reduce the amount of alcohol consumed and binge drinking behavior.

Methods: Individual-, peer-, and environmental-level strategies were combined to reduce students' alcohol use from June 2007 to December 2009. At the individual level, IUB mandated every incoming freshman (N = 6815 in 2007-08 and N = 7550 in 2008-09) to take an interactive web-based multimedia alcohol prevention program and recommended parents to take a similar online course. At the peer level, IUB provided training for Resident Assistants to help them recognize students at risk for alcohol problems, provide feedback and referral to the Screening and Brief Intervention program on campus. At the environmental level, a social norms marketing campaign was run. Assessment of the intervention was conducted in three ways: interviews among a purposive sample of freshmen, CORE survey, and AlcoholEdu 3-wave surveys.

Results: The percentage of students who consumed more than five drinks in a week was reduced from 42.8% in 2006 to 37.5% in 2009; who engaged in binge drinking in the previous two weeks from 60.3% in 2006 to 56.8% in 2009; who have been in trouble with police or college authorities from 15.3% in 2006 to 12.3% in 2009; and who have driven a car while under the influence from 38.4% in 2006 to 22.6% in 2009 (all ps < .05)

Conclusions: Campus-wide intervention to reduce high-risk drinking that employs the social ecological framework appears to be promising.