SBIR-STTR Award

The goals of this project are to develop, evaluate, and disseminate two software programs that provide brief motivational interventions for heavy drinking college students: The College Drinker's Check-ups (CDCUs). The CDCUs will be revisions of the Drinker's Check-up (DCU) Windows program and a parallel web application developed for older adults. The interventions will consist of integrated Assessment, Feedback and Decision Making modules. The programs will use the FRAMES elements common to effective brief motivational interventions. The target population is heavy drinking college students (5 or more drinks per occasion for males, 4 or more for females). Phase I goals are to revise the DCU Windows application and its companion program, the Follow-up Drinker's Check-up (FDCU) then evaluate them for technical merit and feasibility. DCU revisions are to: 1) add additional elements to the assessment of quantity/frequency of drinking and of alcohol-related problems appropriate to college students, 2) delete assessments of dependence and alcohol-related problems that are inappropriate for college students, 3) add college specific normative feedback on quantity/frequency and alcohol-related problems, 4) add animated graphics to the feedback module, and 6) revise the look and feel of the program to make it more appealing to students. FDCU revisions will parallel those in the assessment module in the CDCU and revisions to its outcome report functions that reflect changes in the assessments and feedback. Phase II goals include any additional revisions of the CDCU & FDCU Windows applications based on feedback from the pilot study and expert panel, pilot testing of the final prototype, then a controlled clinical trial with 12 month follow-up to assess its effectiveness. The DCU web application also will be revised so that it is parallel to the CDCU Windows application. Developing, evaluating, and disseminating effective programs that reduce heavy drinking could be one answer to the increase in heavy episodic drinking and its consequences in students.

Thesaurus Terms:
alcoholic beverage consumption, alcoholism /alcohol abuse education, computer assisted instruction, educational resource design /development, university student alcoholism /alcohol abuse prevention, computer program /software, computer system design /evaluation, education evaluation /planning, motivation clinical research, human subject

The goals of this project are to develop, evaluate, and disseminate a suite of software programs that provide brief interventions for heavy drinking college students: The College Drinker's Check-up (CDCU). The CDCU will be a revision of the Drinker's Check-up (DCU), a Windows program and a web application developed for older adults. Revisions of the programs are necessary to tailor the programs to a college student population. The DCU intervention consists of integrated assessment, feedback and decision-making modules. The programs will use the FRAMES elements common to effective brief interventions. We will also revise the follow-up program for the Windows version (Follow-up College Drinker's Program, FCDCU) and integrate follow-up components into the web application so that it has the same features and functions as the CDCU /FCDCU Windows application. The target population is heavy drinking college students (5 or more drinks per occasion for males, 4 or more for females & peak BACs >80mg% in the previous 2 weeks). Phase II goals include: revisions of the Windows and web applications based on feedback from the pilot study and expert panel; pilot testing of the final prototypes; and a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of the Windows version with a 12 month follow-up to assess its effectiveness. The RCT will compare the CDCU to a no treatment control group. There are substantial public health implications from this project. Developing a suite of Internet and Windows based programs increases the ability of universities to use these programs and the likelihood they will be used in a variety of different settings. If the clinical trial shows that the CDCU program is effective in reducing heavy drinking, it could be widely disseminated at relatively low cost. Our pricing structure (a one time fee) also will put this suite of programs at an advantage relative to its competition and make it less costly to adopt. Colleges are experiencing increasing pressure to implement evidence-based intervention programs to reduce heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems in their student body (NIAAA, 2002a,b). At the same time they need alternatives that are less expensive, require less staff effort and training, yet are empirically supported. The CDCU, if effective, could help meet those needs.

Public Health Relevance:
This Public Health Relevance is not available.

Thesaurus Terms:
Alcoholism /Alcohol Abuse Prevention, Alcoholism /Alcohol Abuse Therapy, Computer System Design /Evaluation, Early /Brief Intervention /Therapy, Human Therapy Evaluation, University Student Internet, Alcoholic Beverage Consumption, Alcoholism /Alcohol Abuse Information System, Clinical Trial, Computer Assisted Instruction, Decision Making, Educational Resource Design /Development Behavioral /Social Science Research Tag, Clinical Research, Human Subject