Reducing drinking among junior enlisted Air Force members in five communities: early findings of the EUDL program's influence on self-reported drinking behaviors.
OBJECTIVE
In the fall of 2006, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention awarded discretionary grants to five communities in four states as part of the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws initiative. These 3-year grants were designed to support implementation of a set of interventions using an environmental strategies approach to reduce drinking and associated alcohol-related misconducts among active-duty Air Force members ages 18-25, with a specific focus on the underage population. The current article presents findings from Year 1 of the evaluation.


METHODS
Data on alcohol use were obtained from a large-scale, anonymous survey that fielded in the spring of 2006 (i.e., pretest) and the spring of 2008 (i.e., posttest) from a stratified random sample of Air Force members at five demonstration and five comparison communities.


RESULTS
The percentage of junior enlisted personnel at risk for an alcohol problem dropped 6.6% in the Air Force overall during the last 2 years but dropped as much as 13.6% and 9.8% in two Arizona demonstration communities that implemented the intervention.


CONCLUSIONS
The first-year results suggest that the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws intervention may have been one factor that helped to reduce the percentage of junior enlisted Air Force members at risk for an alcohol problem in the demonstration communities.
Spera
Christopher
C
ICF International, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA. cspera@icfi.com
Franklin
Keita
K
Uekawa
Kazuaki
K
Kunz
John F
JF
Szoc
Ronald Z
RZ
Thomas
Randall K
RK
Cambridge
Milton H
MH
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012306:Risk; D055815:Young Adult
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