Online Program for Young Adult Veteran Drinkers
Condition: AOD Misuse; AOD Associated Consequences
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The primary objective of the research study is to test the feasibility of a brief
      Internet-based intervention to reduce heavy alcohol use among young adult veterans of wars in
      Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans are recruited through the social media website Facebook in two
      phases. In the first phase, investigators collect data from 800 veteran participants to
      document and analyze drinking norms in this population. In the second phase, investigators
      use the norms collected in Phase 1 and information from the analyses to develop and pilot
      test an online intervention with young adult veteran participants. Six hundred participants
      are recruited through Facebook and randomly assigned to intervention (N = 300) or control (N
      = 300) conditions. It is hypothesized that those in the intervention condition will drink
      less at a one-month follow-up period than those in the control condition. Investigators also
      collect feedback from participants on the usability of the online intervention.
    

Detailed description: 
      This study was conducted in two phases with the main goal of developing and testing a very
      brief online program to reduce heavy alcohol use among young adult veterans in the United
      States.

      In the first phase, we examined how the social media website Facebook could be used to reach
      veterans in the community for the intervention effort. Although veterans are an at-risk group
      for heavy drinking and mental health problems, few seek care. Thus, we were able to document
      that targeted Facebook advertisements can be used to reach out to veterans and provide them
      with an alcohol reduction program that they likely would not have received otherwise.

      In the second phase, we used the data we collected from participants in the first phase to
      develop a personalized normative feedback intervention. This intervention was very brief and
      online, and showed young veterans information to correct their misperceptions about the
      drinking behavior of their peers. For example, in the intervention, young veterans would be
      asked how much they believe other veterans like themselves drink alcohol. Then, they would
      view information about veterans like themselves that showed them that other veterans do not
      drink as much as they think they do. This is important because much research has documented
      that perceptions about how much others drink is a major factor contributing to how much one
      drinks themselves. Thus, correcting these misperceptions has been a primary strategy for
      reducing drinking among young people. These norms correction strategies have mostly been
      tested with college students or other non-veteran young adult groups, and when they have been
      tested with veterans they have been tested within much lengthier, multicomponent
      interventions. Our study was the first to test the norms correction strategy alone with young
      veterans using an online design meant to reach veterans in the community through recruitment
      on Facebook.
    

Intervention name(s): Personalized normative feedback
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participants receive behavioral norms feedback based on their response to items in a baseline survey. Personal responses are presented along with perceptions of other same gender veterans and actual drinking norms of same gender veterans.
Other intervention name(s): PNF
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: alcohol; young adult veterans; brief intervention; online; perceived norms