Effectiveness of the 'Healthy School and Drugs' prevention programme on adolescents' substance use: A randomized clustered trial

Monique Malmberg, Marloes Kleinjan*, Geertjan Overbeek, Ad Vermulst, Karin Monshouwer, Jeroen Lammers, Wilma A M Vollebergh, Rutger C M E Engels

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Healthy School and Drugs programme on alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use among Dutch early adolescents. Design: Randomized clustered trial with two intervention conditions (i.e. e-learning and integral). Setting: General population of 11-15-year-old adolescents in the Netherlands. Participants: A total of 3784 students of 23 Dutch secondary schools. Measurements: Structured digital questionnaires were administered pre-intervention and at 32 months follow-up. The primary outcome measures were new incidences of alcohol (life-time and 1-month prevalence), tobacco (life-time and 1-month prevalence) and marijuana use (life-time prevalence). Findings: Main effect analyses showed no programme effects on incidences of alcohol consumption (life-time prevalence: e-learning condition: B=0.102, P=0.549; integral condition: B=-0.157, P=0.351; 1-month prevalence: e-learning condition: B=0.191, P=0.288; integral condition: B=-0.140, P=0.445), tobacco consumption (life-time prevalence: e-learning condition: B=0.164, P=0.444; integral condition: B=0.160, P=0.119; 1-month prevalence: e-learning condition: B=0.088, P=0.746; integral condition: B=0.261, P=0.093), or marijuana consumption (life-time prevalence: e-learning condition: B=0.070, P=0.732; integral condition: B=0.186, P=0.214). Conclusion: The non-significant impact of the Healthy School and Drugs programme (a Dutch school-based prevention programme for early adolescents) on incidences of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use indicates that the programme is either ineffective or implemented inadequately.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1031-1040
Number of pages10
JournalAddiction
Volume109
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2014

Keywords

  • Alcohol use
  • Early adolescents
  • Marijuana use
  • Prevention
  • Randomized clustered trial
  • Tobacco use

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Effectiveness of the 'Healthy School and Drugs' prevention programme on adolescents' substance use: A randomized clustered trial'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this