Integrative Alcohol and Risky Sex Feedback for College Students

Summary

Alcohol misuse and related risky sexual behaviors are significant health concerns for college students. Two-thirds of students are current drinkers, at least 1 in 3 report past month heavy episodic drinking (5+ drinks in a row), and 1 in 10 report high intensity drinking (10+ drinks in a row). Increased student alcohol use and heavy drinking are linked to increased sexual activity and related risky behaviors (e.g., unprotected sex, sex with casual partners). This puts students at risk for negative health outcomes (e.g., STIs - sexually transmitted infections) and is also a pathway to sexual victimization and escalated drinking. The first few weeks of college, known as the 'red zone,' provide an opportunity to intervene at time when these behaviors increase. However, most prevention programs for college students tend to focus on student alcohol use and have little to no integration of content on the relationship between alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors. This is an important gap in the literature and a priority area for NIAAA. The research team established the short-term efficacy of a personalized feedback intervention (PFI), a gold standard intervention approach, with integrated content on alcohol and risky sexual behaviors. In this study, we propose to extend our integrated PFI to include a cross-tailored dynamic feedback (CDF) component. The CDF component will use technology to incorporate daily assessments of student behavior and provide students with dynamic weekly feedback over 12 weeks. The goal is to increase the effectiveness of the integrated PFI and to create a program that is easily implemented on college campuses.

Conditions

• Alcohol Drinking in College
• Sexual Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cross-tailored Dynamic Feedback

Dynamic, technology-delivered weekly feedback on weekend diary self-reports of first-year college student behavior related to alcohol use and related sexual behaviors.

BEHAVIORAL

Personalized Feedback Intervention

Technology-delivered personalized feedback on first-year college student behavior related to alcohol use and related sexual behaviors.

BEHAVIORAL

Dynamic Feedback on General Health Behaviors

Dynamic, technology-delivered weekly feedback on weekend diary self-reports of first-year college student behavior related to general health behaviors.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of North Texas Health Science Center

  collaborator OTHER

• Klein Buendel, Inc.

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

  collaborator NIH

• Anne E Ray

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Anne E Ray, PhD · University of Kentucky

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

20 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-04-01

Primary Completion

2027-01-31

Completion

2027-01-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations