Cue-Reminders to Prevent Health-Risk Behaviors: A Systematic Review.

It has been proposed that the use of cue-reminders may increase the effectiveness of interventions that aim to prevent health-risk behaviors (i.e., having unsafe sex, unhealthy dietary intake, lack of physical activity, and substance use).

Using ecological momentary assessment in testing the effectiveness of an alcohol intervention: a two-arm parallel group randomized controlled trial.

Background: Alcohol consumption of college students has a fluctuating nature, which might impact the measurement of intervention effects. By using 25 follow-up time-points, this study tested whether intervention effects are robust or might vary over time.

Methods: Data were used from a two-arm parallel group randomized controlled trial applying ecological momentary assessment (EMA) with 30 data time-points in total.

The effectiveness of a web-based brief alcohol intervention in reducing heavy drinking among adolescents aged 15-20 years with a low educational background: a two-arm parallel group cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: To evaluate the slightly modified version of the web-based brief alcohol intervention "What Do You Drink" (WDYD) among heavy drinking adolescents and young adults aged 15-20 years with a low educational background at one and six months follow-up.

Methods: A two-arm parallel group cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted online in the Netherlands in 2011-2012. Participants included in the trial were recruited from preparatory and secondary vocational education institutions and had to be between 15 and 20 years of age and report heavy drinking in the past six months.

Longitudinal associations between attitudes towards binge drinking and alcohol-free drinks, and binge drinking behavior in adolescence.

Alcohol attitudes are often considered an important predecessor of drinking behavior, although the literature is equivocal. Lately, attention has turned to enhancing positive cognitions on alcoholic-free drinks to discourage heavy drinking. The current study was the first to longitudinally examine associations between attitudes towards binge drinking and alcohol-free drinks and binge drinking behavior in a cross-lagged path model in Mplus.

The effectiveness of a cue-reminder intervention to reduce adolescents' alcohol use in social contexts.

Aims: To examine the use of a cue-reminder to target alcohol use among youth in social contexts.

Methods: Two experiments were conducted. First, among 92 late adolescents, we tested if a cue-reminder could be effectively associated with information about empowerment, awareness and monitoring of one's own limits with regard to alcohol use.

Targeting young drinkers online: the effectiveness of a web-based brief alcohol intervention in reducing heavy drinking among college students: study protocol of a two-arm parallel group randomized controlled trial.

Background: The prevalence of heavy drinking among college students and its associated health related consequences highlights an urgent need for alcohol prevention programs targeting 18 to 24 year olds. Nevertheless, current alcohol prevention programs in the Netherlands pay surprisingly little attention to the drinking patterns of this specific age group. The study described in this protocol will test the effectiveness of a web-based brief alcohol intervention that is aimed at reducing alcohol use among heavy drinking college students aged 18 to 24 years old.

Evaluating a selective prevention programme for binge drinking among young adolescents: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: In comparison to other Europe countries, Dutch adolescents are at the top in drinking frequency and binge drinking. A total of 75% of the Dutch 12 to 16 year olds who drink alcohol also engage in binge drinking. A prevention programme called Preventure was developed in Canada to prevent adolescents from binge drinking.

Effectiveness of a web-based brief alcohol intervention and added value of normative feedback in reducing underage drinking: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Current insights indicate that Web-based delivery may enhance the implementation of brief alcohol interventions. Previous research showed that electronically delivered brief alcohol interventions decreased alcohol use in college students and adult problem drinkers. To date, no study has investigated the effectiveness of Web-based brief alcohol interventions in reducing alcohol use in younger populations.

The unique contribution of attitudes toward non-alcoholic drinks to the prediction of adolescents' and young adults' alcohol consumption.

Attitudes toward alternative behaviors, such as drinking soda instead of alcohol, might contribute to the prediction of young people's drinking behavior. The current study explored the associations between late adolescents' and young adults' attitudes toward alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and their alcohol consumption, and whether these associations were moderated by participants' sex, age and education level. Cross-sectional data were collected among 1012 15 to 25-year-olds.

Avoiding counterproductive results: an experimental pretest of a harm reduction intervention on attitude toward party drugs among users and nonusers.

In two experimental studies, the authors tested written health education materials on the personal acceptance of party drug use. Following a harm reduction strategy, the materials provided information on minimizing potential hazards associated with drug use. Among users and nonusers, potential aversive effects of these materials were examined on measures of attitude, intention, and outcome expectancy toward party drug use.

Television-supported self-help for problem drinkers: a randomized pragmatic trial.

Objectives: To test the effectiveness of a television-supported self-help intervention for problem drinking.

Methods: Dutch television viewers (N=181) drinking in excess of the guidelines for low-risk alcohol use were randomly assigned either to the Drinking Less TV self-help course (consisting of five televised sessions supplemented by a self-help manual and a self-help website) or to a waitlisted control group. To ensure trial integrity, intervention delivery was mimicked beforehand by sending intervention participants weekly DVDs in advance of the actual telecasts in 2006.

Drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and drinking patterns.

The current study focused on the associations between drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and drinking behavior in a representative sample of 553 Dutch adolescents and adults. Data were gathered by means of self-report questionnaires and a 14-days drinking diary. A model was postulated in which negative expectancies and self-efficacy were directly associated with drinking, and in which drinking motives mediated the associations between positive expectancies, and drinking.

The effects on mortality of brief interventions for problem drinking: a meta-analysis.

Aims: Brief interventions for problem drinking may result in decreased mortality rates. Long-term follow-up studies of brief interventions do not produce a clear answer to the question as to whether these interventions reduce mortality or not.

Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized studies comparing brief interventions with a control group, using the fixed-effects model.