Testing training programs to limit binge drinking

摘要

Background: Young people becoming overly intoxicated by drinking alcohol is a widespread problem with consequences ranging from hangovers to death. Previous research has shown that high school students do not know that the slow diffusion of alcohol from the stomach to the body can cause them to continue becoming more intoxicated even after they stop drinking. A natural next step is to explore training programs designed so young people will learn to avoid becoming more intoxicated than intended. Will training programs lead to better understanding, will understanding influence drinking patterns, and will changes be immediate or follow after some period of time as deeper understanding enables better interpretation of one's bad experiences? Method: Two training programs, a simulator-based learning environment and printed information, are tested on two groups of high school students and contrasted to a control group receiving neither form of training. Students were asked to report their drinking experiences before, one month after, and two months after the training. Results: Those who received simulator-based training made the better forecasts of the effects of drinking. Those with written information reduced their drinking relative to the control group over time. However, this result could also be explained by other factors. Conclusion: A better research design is needed. A two-week celebration period in the last month may have dominated learning effects and reflection. Learning also seems to require more time than the short interventions in this experiment.