Prevention of Hazardous Use of Alcohol with Danish High School Students (Our Choice)

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Structural only: A shared list of school policies for or related to, school-based social events at school premises. The policy initiatives include (but are not limited to): increasing the number of social events without alcohol; promoting non-alcoholic beverages at parties; working with student associations regarding their roles and responsibilities; encouraging parental involvement at school events and disseminating the schools' alcohol policy among students and parents. The school principal and management will be responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the policies. The Information-based interactive parent meetings will be 45 minutes and will take place at the schools. Parents will be offered concrete, research-informed advice about how they can reduce risk of hazardous substance use and promote well-being among their adolescents. Following a 15-minute presentation, the group leader facilitates a discussion and exchange of experience between parents.

Structural+Group MI: Within school classes, students are divided into groups of 5-8 students and each group will be assigned a group leader from the research team. The group-based Motivational Interviewing (group MI) is manualized and consists of two one-hour group sessions administered over two consecutive weeks. The first session is focused on "Tell your story", "Gains from not drinking", and "Social norms." In the second session, the focus is on "Personal values", "Linking values with behavior" and "Planning/choices regarding alcohol". Both group MI sessions will take place at the schools during the school day.

Study summary

The trial 'Our Choice' examines the effect of two prevention interventions targeting school, parent, and student levels at Danish high schools. The interventions aim to reduce hazardous use of alcohol and related health outcomes among first-year students in Denmark (ages 15-18). The investigators hypothesizes that a structural intervention (school and parent levels) reduces hazardous alcohol use and related health outcomes compared to an assessment-only control group 12 months post baseline; and that adding group-based Motivational Interviewing (group MI) yields further improvements. Additionally, factors related to the implementation of the interventions are examined.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Past month high-intensity drinking — From baseline to 12 months after baseline
  Past month high-intensity drinking: peak drinks per drinking event, assessed with the Timeline FollowBack (TLFB) (count measure)

Trial sites (1)

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