Positive Choices: Evaluation of a national initiative to disseminate evidence-based alcohol and other drug education and wellbeing resources

Friday, 25 November, 2022 - 09:00 to 14:50

Abstract

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) use among Australian adolescents continues to be a public health concern. Early use of AOD puts young people at higher risk of mental ill-health, juvenile offending, and poorer educational outcomes. Research shows that both school-based prevention strategies and parenting strategies are effective at reducing AOD use and their related harms. However, such strategies are often not implemented by schools or parents. Positive Choices is a website developed to address this evidence-practice gap by providing school staff, parents, and students with access to evidence-based drug education and wellbeing resources.

Online questionnaires were administered to school staff and parents and/or caregivers to evaluate the effectiveness of the Positive Choices website in filling this evidence-practice gap. The evaluation was guided by the GoodWeb framework which assesses attributes relevant to e-health websites, including appearance, content, ease of use, interactivity, technical adequacy, loyalty, and satisfaction.

A total of 42 school staff and 53 parents and/or caregivers completed the online questionnaire. Overall, Positive Choices performed well. Of the website attributes evaluated, appearance was rated highest by participants, followed by ease of use and content. Interactivity was rated lowest, indicating there is most room for improvement on this attribute. Also, 49% of school staff, and 37% of parents already used Positive Choices. Of those who didn’t 87% of school staff and 94% of parents planned to do so in the future to access information about AOD. In addition, 91% of school staff and 95% of parents were satisfied with Positive Choices and would recommend the portal to a friend or colleague.

Findings from the evaluation of Positive Choices demonstrate that it is effective at disseminating evidence-based AOD and mental ill-health prevention resources to school staff and parents. The findings further highlight the important role of online health initiatives for AOD harm reduction.

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