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Washington, DC - October 9, 2003 - A preliminary analysis of results from more than 3,000 college students required to take an online alcohol prevention program in 2002-2003 demonstrates that a newly developed strategy - "Population-Level Prevention" - effectively moderates high-risk drinking, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) announced today. The results show that schools where all first-year students had to take the online program, AlcoholEdu, saw statistically significant self-report reductions in consumption, higher rates of abstention and adoption of protective behaviors intended to minimize the consequences of drinking.
In 2002, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), released a Call to Action, a report on college drinking which cited staggering statistics of an emerging public health concern on college campuses: 1,400 alcohol-related deaths, 500,000 alcohol-related injuries, 70,000 alcohol-related sexual assaults, 2.1 million incidences of drunk driving, and 159,000 first-year student dropouts every year.
"College administrators have been working long and hard - often with little visible success - to reduce the abuse of alcohol by underage college students. But now we are starting to see promising results from new prevention strategies," said Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy, Executive Director of NASPA, at a press conference at the group's Washington, D.C. offices. "One such strategy is online Population-Level Prevention programs that schools implemented last year. Preliminary data indicate that colleges committed to attacking the problem through numerous strategies - including mandatory alcohol education for entire populations of students - can effect measurable changes in individual behaviors."
Assessment data from eight universities that required their entire entering first-year classes to take AlcoholEdu in the fall of 2002 revealed that, among 3,100 students who took the course:
- The proportion of students abstaining increased 10 percent, from 39.4 to 43.4 percent of the total after taking AlcoholEdu
- Among students who continued to drink, the average number of drinks consumed per week declined more than 13 percent, from 9.9 before taking AlcoholEdu to 8.6 when measured a month after completing the program
- The incidence of certain high-risk drinking behaviors, such as "pre-loading" - drinking at home before going out for the evening - decreased as well
- And, more students adopted healthier and safer behaviors, such as pacing drinks at one per hour and avoiding drinking when taking prescription medications.
According to Dr. Richard Keeling, one of the nation's leading experts in college health and prevention and Vice President of Prevention Programs for Outside The Classroom, the results of Population-Level Prevention among groups of first-year students are very encouraging. "These findings strongly suggest that students' social networks - which can spread high-risk patterns of drinking - can also be used to change behavior," said Dr. Keeling. "That's the power of Population-Level Prevention - an interactive, online prevention program can be a truly transformational experience that motivates behavior change."
A New Tool for College Alcohol Abuse Prevention Programs
"When NASPA forged a strategic alliance with Outside The Classroom two years ago, Population-Level Prevention still was a theory," said Kevin Kruger, Associate Executive Director of NASPA. "But now the results are in: schools applying theory to practice by administering online prevention to their entire first-year classes are starting to see a change in their student drinking behaviors. Population-Level Prevention may become a 'best practice' that will get results for colleges implementing it as a component of their comprehensive alcohol prevention programs."
As the leading voice for student affairs administration, policy and practice, NASPA helps its members lead their institutions with best practices and with innovative, research-based solutions to problems. In addition to Outside the Classroom, NASPA has formed a strategic alliance with other members of the higher education community working to curb student drinking including the Higher Education for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention and The Network Addressing Collegiate Alcohol and Other Drug Issues.
NASPA recommended that its member schools try Population-Level Prevention utilizing the online program as a promising innovation in the ongoing battle against student alcohol abuse, and Outside The Classroom, developer of AlcoholEdu, agreed to provide an incentive to NASPA members to be first to try it. A non-opinionated, science-based course that students take on the web, AlcoholEdu is a two-and-one-half hour program that can be successfully and cost-effectively administered to an entire population of students.
"College administrators are under more pressure than ever before to provide measurable results documenting the efficacy of their programs," said Brandon Busteed, Founder and CEO of Outside The Classroom. "AlcoholEdu provides colleges with the solution they have been seeking in their battle against high-risk drinking - an effective program that can be cost-effectively administered to the entire population of students, delivering results that can be measured."
About NASPA
The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) is the leading voice for student affairs administration, policy and practice. Its mission is to provide professional development, promote exemplary practices, and be a leader in policy development. NASPA helps senior student affairs officers and administrators, student affairs professionals, faculty, and other educators enhance student learning and development. NASPA promotes quality and high expectations; advocates for students; encourages diversity; and excels in research and publication. With over 8,000 individual members and more than 1,175 member campuses NASPA gets its leadership from volunteers from member institutions who are elected as regional and national officers.
About AlcoholEdu and Outside The Classroom
Developed by a team of prevention experts, AlcoholEdu bases its instruction on interdisciplinary applications of alcohol to brain science, sociology, history and mathematics. It takes students through a personalized, interactive experience with decision-making exercises that emulate real-life situations they may experience at college. AlcoholEdu is also easy to implement and administer. Because it collects data from pre- and post-assessments, including tests and surveys, as well as from a follow-up survey one month after students take the course, it provides administrators with a wealth of information documenting population-level improvements in attitudes and behavior. As the online cornerstone of a university's comprehensive prevention program, AlcoholEdu supports and integrates with other initiatives ranging from motivational feedback to environmental management to social marketing programs, providing the world's most effective solution to the problem of high-risk drinking.
Outside The Classroom (www.outsidetheclassroom.com) was founded to address critical behavioral health issues. In addition to AlcoholEdu, universities nationwide are gaining insight about key campus health trends and environmental policy issues with TheHealthSurvey, a comprehensive, online assessment tool. Outside The Classroom is a partner to many prominent organizations, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and NASPA.
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