Tobacco and alcohol use-prevention program for Hispanic migrant adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
Evaluate a community-based tobacco/alcohol use-prevention program group compared with an attention-control condition (first aid/home safety) group.


METHODS
A total of 660 adolescents and 1 adult caregiver for each were recruited through the Migrant Education Program to participate in an 8-week intervention. Random assignment to the two groups occurred in 22 schools. Seventy 8-week intervention groups (37 tobacco/alcohol and 33 attention-control) were conducted. Assessments occurred at baseline, immediate post-intervention, and 1- and 2-year follow-ups. Susceptibility to smoking and alcohol as well as smoking and drinking over the past 30 days were the primary outcomes of interest.


RESULTS
Following intervention, no between-group differences in smoking or drinking were significant. Thirty-day smoking started and remained at very low levels, with the highest group prevalence at any measurement period being 4.7% and the lowest 2.5%. Those considered susceptible to smoking dropped by nearly 40% in the attention-control group and by 50% in the intervention group from baseline to the final follow-up. (The overall reduction from post-test to final follow-up was statistically significant.) Less-acculturated children were less likely to report drinking in the past 30 days.


CONCLUSIONS
The current intervention was not demonstrated to be effective in preventing cigarette or alcohol consumption. This perhaps is due to very low baseline levels of smoking and drinking in the migrant youth participants.
Elder
John P
JP
San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego, California 92123, USA. jelder@mail.sdsu.edu
Litrownik
Alan J
AJ
Slymen
Donald J
DJ
Campbell
Nadia R
NR
Parra-Medina
Deborah
D
Choe
Sunny
S
Lee
Virginia
V
Ayala
Guadalupe X
GX
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011322:Primary Prevention; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014171:Transients and Migrants