title: The Making of Evidence-based Practice: The Case of Project ALERT.
abstract: Evidence-based practice has been enthusiastically embraced within the field of drug prevention during the past decade. Project ALERT, a school-based universal prevention program, is among the most widely advocated evidence-based interventions. We examined the results of three large-scale evaluations of Project ALERT, and concluded that assessment of data from the total samples shows that the program has little effect on drug use. Despite this, Project ALERT is included on evidence-based drug prevention lists because the criteria for inclusion are extremely weak. We discuss the implications of this for drug prevention evaluation research and the creation of evidence-based practice lists.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, College Station, TX 77843, United States.
authors.forename: Dennis M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Gorman
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Conde