title: Randomized controlled trial of web-based decisional balance feedback and personalized normative feedback for college drinkers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Web-based personalized feedback interventions, particularly personalized normative feedback (PNF), are efficacious in improving college drinking outcomes; however, no personalized feedback interventions to date have provided college drinkers with feedback about their own decisional balance. This study tested the relative efficacy of a novel decisional balance feedback (DBF) intervention, PNF, and an assessment-only control condition.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants (N = 724; 56% female) were undergraduate students at a 4-year university in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and were randomized to receive one-time exposure to web-based DBF, PNF, or assessment only. Web-based assessment occurred at baseline and at 1-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups and included measures of motivation to change, drinking quantity norms, drinking frequency/quantity, and alcohol-related problems.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the 1-month follow-up, DBF and PNF participants reported reductions in alcohol-related problems; however, only PNF participants reduced their drinking frequency and quantity. At the 6-month follow-up, only DBF participants showed significant reductions in drinking quantity and alcohol-related problems. Neither group maintained reductions in alcohol use or alcohol-related problems at the 12-month follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provided preliminary evidence that web-based DBF and PNF are efficacious interventions for college drinkers, with DBF having somewhat longer lasting effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington-Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington-Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kirouac
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Witkiewitz
authors.affiliation: Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, Rhode Island.
authors.forename: Kate B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Carey
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000628:therapy*; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult