Effetti di un programma di prevenzione a base scolastica sull’uso di alcol tra adolescenti europei

[Machine translation] OBJECTIVES: According to the statement of the WHO/Europe Ministerial Conference on Youth and Alcohol, all children and adolescents have the right to grow up in an environment protected from the negative consequences of alcohol consumption. School-based substance abuse prevention programs are widespread in Europe, but they are rarely tested to evaluate their effectiveness. Eu-DAP is a project funded by the European Union to evaluate the effectiveness of a new school-based program for the prevention of substance use among European students. In this study, we report the effects of the curriculum on the frequency of alcohol consumption, of episodes of drunkenness, and on alcohol-related problematic behaviors, 18 months after the start of the program., MATERIALS: During the 2004-2005 school year, 7079 12-14-year-old students from 143 schools in 7 European countries participated in this randomized controlled experimental study. Schools were randomly assigned to the control condition (3532 students) or to a standardized 12-lesson curriculum based on the comprehensive social influence model (3547 students). The use of alcohol, the frequency of episodes of drunkenness and alcohol-related problematic behaviors were investigated through an anonymous self-completed questionnaire, at the beginning of the study and 18 months later. The association between intervention and changes in responses related to alcohol use was expressed in terms of odds ratio, estimated with multilevel multiple regression models., SUMMARY: The prevention program is associated with a decreased risk of reporting episodes of drunkenness in the 30 days before the interview (OR=0.80, 95% CI=0.67—0.97) and problematic behaviors due to alcohol in the 12 months prior to the interview (OR=0.78, 95% CI=0.63-0.98). The risk of alcohol consumption was not changed by exposure to the program (OR=0.93, 95% CI=0.79-1.09). However, among those who did not drink or drink occasionally at the beginning of the study, the students in the intervention arm demonstrated, compared to the controls, a lower tendency to progress towards frequent drinking., CONCLUSIONS: School programs based on the comprehensive social influence model may reduce the occurrence of drunkenness and alcohol-related behavioral problems among European adolescents.