Preliminary results of a study on the effectiveness of normative feedback as an active ingredient ofa brief intervention to reduce alcohol consumption among university students in Argentina

CONDE, KARINA; CREMONTE, MARIANA; LICHTENBERGER, ALDANA; GIMENEZ, PAULA VICTORIA; PELTZER, RAQUEL

Santiago de Chile

Conferencia; 15th annual conference of INEBRIA; 2018

INEBRIA

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness of Normative Feedback (NF) in the Brief Intervention (BI) to reduce alcohol consumption and related problems in university students. Materials and methods: Data were collected from 158 incoming students to the National University of Mar del Plata who provided informed consent. 60% were women and 40% were men, between 17 and 45 years old (M = 20.45 SD = 3.9). Weperformedd a random assignment to one of three conditions: evaluation only (control -CG-), evaluation and BI without RN (BI), and evaluation and BI with NF (BINF). To assess effectiveness, was evaluated the decrease in AUDIT scores. In order to estimate differences between the groups before and after the BIs, bivariate analyzes were performed (Kruskal?Wallis test and Mann?Whitney U test). Also measures of clinical significance (relative risk (RR), absolute risk reduction (RAR) and the number of patients needed to treat to reduce an event (NNT), comparing the effectiveness of interventions between groups. Results: No differences were found between groups at the beginning of the experiment (H (2) = 3.52, p = 0.172), but they were found after interventions (H (2) = 25.6, p = 0.001). The initial means were CG M = 6.03, SD = 3.11, BI M = 5.24, SD = 2.41, and BI-NF M = 6.47, SD = 2.7; and the final CG M = 4.11, SD = 2.82, BI M = 1.92, SD = 1.53, and BI-NF M = 3.09, SD = 2.63. Differences were found between CG and BI (U = 688.5, p = 0.001), CG and BI-NF (U = 916.5, p = 0.018), and BI and BI-NF (U = 403.5, p = 0.013). The effectiveness was 85% CG, 97% BI and 91% BI-NF, the differences were significant for CG and BI (RR (IC95%) = 13% (21% -3%), RAR (IC95%) = 12% (2% -25%), NNT (IC95%) = 8 (4 to 39), p = 0.05), and CG and BI-NF [RR (IC95%) = 6% (19% -8%), RAR (95% CI) = 6% (-6% -22%), NNT (95% CI) = 18 (5 to -18), p = 0.04), although no BI and BI-NF differences were found (p = 0.248)]. Conclusions: Both analyzes showed the same tendency, the effectiveness of the BI, both without NF and with NF compared with the CG, but surprisingly the NF component seems not to contribute to the effectiveness of the BI.