Effects of alcohol-related health education on alcohol and drinking behavior awareness among Japanese junior college students: a randomized controlled trial.
We conducted a randomized controlled trial involving Japanese junior college students aimed at investigating the effects of a single session of alcohol health education concerning the effects of alcohol, alcohol-related health problems, and drinking behavior. Students were randomly assigned to an intervention (n=38) or a control group (n=33). The intervention group attended a 90-minute alcohol health education session that included demonstration of an ethanol patch test, watching videos, and a lecture by an ex-alcoholic. The control group received health education regarding smoking. The students. knowledge regarding alcohol, their drinking behavior, and problem drinking (CAGE) were measured by a self-administered questionnaire at the baseline and at a two-month follow-up. A repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) of those who completed the follow-up indicated the education sessions. significant intervention (group*time) effect on the scores related to knowledge of alcohol-related health problems (p=0.035), with a greater increase in the scores of the intervention group at the follow-up. No significant intervention eff ect was observed regarding drinking behavior or problem drinking as measured by CAGE (p>0.05). Alcohol-related education can be considered an effective way to increase awareness of alcohol-related health problems, but less effective for changing drinking the behavior of Japanese junior college students.
Geshi
Masayo
M
Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan. masayo@giga.ocn.ne.jp
Hirokawa
Kumi
K
Taniguchi
Toshiyo
T
Fujii
Yasuhito
Y
Kawakami
Norito
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013334:Students