Assessing the Effectiveness of an Educational Alcohol Prevention Program among Adolescent Population in Catalonia
Background: In Catalonia, the average age of alcohol consumption initiation was 13.9 years old in 2021, and 51.5% of individuals aged between 14 and 18 had consumed alcohol in the past month. Adolescence is a crucial period for learning health habits, so it is essential to implement interventions promoting health and healthy habits targeting those groups. Given that adolescence coincides with secondary education, developing educational resources embedded in the school curriculum is essential. The "Què en saps de l’alcohol?" program (What do you know about alcohol?) is a universal prevention program based on peer methodology aimed to raise awareness among secondary school students about alcohol consumption and its associated risks.
The pilot study aimed to assess the effectiveness of "Què en saps de l’alcohol?" program in 15- and 16-year-old students in Catalonia during the academic year 2023-24.
Methods: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest evaluation study with a comparison group targeted to adolescents aged 15 and 16 was conducted. The sample included students from 3rd or 4th year of 10 secondary schools from 5 municipalities. The sample was divided into intervention and comparison groups and the dependent variables were: the level of alcohol consumption knowledge, perceived learning, and the changes in students perceptions before and after the program. Process evaluation variables, such as student and professional satisfaction, were also recorded through ad-hoc questionnaires. Linear regression was performed, and mean differences with a 95% confidence interval were calculated between the intervention and comparison groups and before and after the intervention.
Results: At January 2024, results are being collected for both pre-test and post-test phases. Currently, 117 individuals from 2 different secondary schools have participated. In the sample, 47% are girls and 48.7% are boys, with 57.3% from a school in Sabadell and 46.2% from one in Lleida. The provisional overall average knowledge score regarding alcohol consumption and associated risks before implementing the program is 6.32 (95% CI: 6.07-6.57) out of 10. Before the program, comparison group score is 6.03 (95% CI: 5.49-6.56) while intervention group score is 6.43 (95% CI: 6.14-6.72). There are no differences in previous alcohol consumption knowledge between the two groups. Final results are expected to be available by June 2024.
Conclusions: By now, there are no differences in alcohol consumption knowledge between comparison and intervention groups before the prevention program implementation. We hope to confirm that "Què en saps de l’alcohol?" is effective in improving awareness and knowledge of adolescents on alcohol consumption and its associated risks. If the effectiveness of this strategy was demonstrated, it would open the possibility to deploy more similar initiatives related to the prevention of substance addictions.
