Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

Underage drinking is a national concern that led the US surgeon general to issue a "Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking" last year.

Now, a new report by an Iowa State University researcher assesses the effectiveness of underage drinking prevention programs and provides a better idea of how to achieve key goals outlined by the surgeon general.

Lead author Richard Spoth, director of the Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute (PPSI) at Iowa State, along with co-authors Mark Greenberg and Robert Turrisi of Penn State, published "Preventive Interventions Addressing Underage Drinking: State of the Evidence and Steps Toward Public Health Impact" in the May issue of Pediatrics -- the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Among the interventions that were listed as "Most Promising" for youths 10 to 15 years of age, were three from the Midwest -- the Midwestern Prevention Project/Project STAR, which involved 42 public middle and junior high schools and 3,412 students from Kansas City and Indianapolis; Project Northland, which involved 24 school districts in northeastern Minnesota; and ISU Extension's Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14, which involved 36 public schools and 1,650 students in rural Iowa.

"This review indicated that a number of preventive interventions significantly reduced the rate of alcohol use in studied underage populations, as well as bolstered protective factors among children that reduce risks for alcohol use," the authors wrote.

The program review responds to the surgeon general's 2007 Call to Action.

It was also written as a companion piece to a review by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Underage Drinking Initiative Steering Committee on the causes and consequences of underage drinking for three developmental periods -- less than 10 years of age, 10 to 15 years of age, and 16 to greater than or equal to 20 years of age.

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