Link → Problem Drinkers Respond to Feedback From College-Age Peers
Riper H, et al. Curbing problem drinking with personalized-feedback interventions: A meta-analysis. Am J Prev Med 36(3), 2009.
Excerpt: In questionnaires delivered via mail or the Internet, 3,682 participants in 14 randomized controlled trials noted how much and how often they drank. They received personalized feedback and advice on whether their drinking patterns were normal for their peer group, based on their responses. Later, participants — most of them college-age — were re-surveyed to determine whether the intervention influenced their alcohol consumption.
Riper, lead author of the meta-analysis, and colleagues discovered that even a single session of personalized feedback helped problem drinkers reduce alcohol consumption.
For every eight intervention participants, one person reduced his or her alcohol consumption to normal levels because of the feedback, a result similar to that found in interventions involving brief face-to-face contact with a mental health professional, Riper said.
