Alcohol and Violence Prevention for College Students

Heavy episodic drinking and sexual assault (SA) are problematic on college campuses. This project will adapt already developed interventions targeting alcohol use and SA to a mHealth format and involve content that incorporates federal guidelines and CDC recommendations to integrate both bystander intervention and risk reduction content with new innovative personalized content for each risk group (cis-gender heterosexual men, cis-gender heterosexual women, and sexual/gender minorities). Alpha testing with key stakeholders, an open pilot trial, and a randomized pilot trial will be conducted to establish acceptability and to estimate sample size for a larger randomized controlled trial.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Alcohol Drinking; Sexual Assault
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Positive Change (+Change)

Detailed Description

Specific aims are as follows:

Aim 1 (Stage IA): Modify Alcohol and Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) content to an eHealth format to include personalized content for each risk group (1. cisgender heterosexual men; 2. cisgender heterosexual women; and 3. sexual and gender minorities).

Aim 1a: Assess normative behaviors (n = 500) regarding alcohol use and SA for feedback.

Aim 1b: Adapt and assess initial acceptability of a workbook version of the intervention content among key stakeholders (college administrators and students from each risk group [n=5 from each group]).

Aim 2 (Stage IB): Open Pilot Trial. Obtain usability of ASAP among 30 students who engage in HED (10 from each risk group) in an open pilot trial.

Aim 3 (Stage IB): A pilot to assess effect size and variability for planning a randomized trial in the future. Randomize students who engage in HED to ASAP or control condition to observe preliminary effect sizes and estimate the variability using a 3-month follow-up. Sample size was determined to estimate the variability within a reasonable margin of error. This calculation also accounted the low base rates of SA and 20% attrition. This led to a sample size of 162 students (n=54 from each risk group).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 165
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Arizona
    • Tempe, Arizona, United States, 85281
      • Arizona State University
  • Georgia
    • Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30303
      • Georgia State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 25 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18-25 years old
• Current student at university of study
• Valid email address at university of study
• Endorse engaging in heavy episodic drinking at least once in the past month on the screening survey

Exclusion Criteria:

• There are no exclusion criteria other than not meeting inclusion criteria

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; This is an assessment only control condition.
Experimental: Positive Change (+Change); This is an integrated social norms-based personalized feedback intervention for college students targeting alcohol misuse and sexual assault. This intervention targets alcohol use, sexual assault victimization risk, sexual assault perpetration, and bystander intervention and is tailored by gender and sexual orientation.	Behavioral: Positive Change (+Change); This is an integrated social norms-based personalized feedback intervention for college students targeting alcohol misuse and sexual assault. This intervention targets alcohol use, sexual assault victimization risk, sexual assault perpetration, and bystander intervention and is tailored by gender and sexual orientation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility of Enrollment and Recruitment	Feasibility of enrollment recruitment was assessed by the number of anticipated participants enrolled in the study	within 2 year recruitment period
Feasibility of Retention	Feasibility of retention was assessed by the number of participants retained in the study	within 3 months of baseline participation

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Georgia State University
• Collaborators: Medical University of South Carolina; Rhode Island Hospital; Arizona State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Amanda K Gilmore, PhD, Georgia State University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Gilmore AK, Leone RM, Oesterle DW, Davis KC, Orchowski LM, Ramakrishnan V, Kaysen D. Web-Based Alcohol and Sexual Assault Prevention Program With Tailored Content Based on Gender and Sexual Orientation: Preliminary Outcomes and Usability Study of Positive Change (+Change). JMIR Form Res. 2022 Jul 22;6(7):e23823. doi: 10.2196/23823.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 15, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 8, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): September 8, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 27, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 11, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): September 13, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 13, 2025
• Last Verified: January 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Drinking Behavior; Alcohol Drinking
• Other Study ID Numbers: H20066

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: No sharing of individual participant data, only de-identified data.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No