Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25495012›Full record

SynthesisSubstance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy2014

Effectiveness of school-based preventive interventions on adolescent alcohol use: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Henriette Kyrrestad Strøm, Frode Adolfsen, Sturla Fossum, Sabine Kaiser, Monica Martinussen

Abstract readMeta-Analysis
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
46citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

46 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Trial
  8. Trial
  9. Trial
  10. Trial
  11. Trial
  12. Trial
  13. Trial
  14. The #Tamojunto Drug Prevention Program in Brazilian Schools: a Randomized Controlled Trial.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2017
    Trial
  15. Trial
  16. Three-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial of Motivational Interviewing for Adolescent Drinking in Denmark.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Henriette Kyrrestad StrømRegional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway. Henriette.Kyrrestad@uit.no.
Frode Adolfsen
Sturla Fossum
Sabine Kaiser
Monica Martinussen

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPreventive interventions for adolescents are an important priority within school systems. Several interventions have been developed, but the effectiveness of such interventions varies considerably between studies. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of universal school-based prevention programs on alcohol use among adolescents by using meta-analytic techniques.

methodA systematic literature search in the databases, PubMed (Medline), PsycINFO (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid) and WEB of Science (ISI) was conducted to search for empirical articles published in the period January 1990 to August 2014.

resultsIn total, 28 randomized controlled studies with 39,289 participants at baseline were included. Of these 28 articles, 12 studies (N = 16279) reported continuous outcomes (frequency of alcohol use and quantity of alcohol use), and 16 studies (N = 23010) reported categorical data (proportion of students who drank alcohol). The results of the random effects analyses showed that the overall effect size among studies reporting continuous outcomes was small and demonstrated a favorable effect from the preventive interventions (Hedges' g = 0.22, p < .01). The effect size among studies reporting categorical outcomes was not significant (OR = 0.94, p = .25). The level of heterogeneity between studies was found to be significant in most analyses. Moderator analyses conducted to explore the heterogeneity showed neither significant difference between the different school levels (junior high schools and high schools), nor between the varied program intensities (low, medium and high intensity programs). The meta-regression analyses examining continuous moderators showed no significant effects for age or gender.

conclusionsThe findings from this meta-analysis showed that, overall, the effects of school-based preventive alcohol interventions on adolescent alcohol use were small but positive among studies reporting the continuous measures, whereas no effect was found among studies reporting the categorical outcomes. Possible population health outcomes, with recommendations for policy and practice, are discussed further in this paper.

Indexed as

Adolescent BehaviorRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicAdolescentAlcohol DrinkingChildDatabases, BibliographicFemaleHumansMaleProgram EvaluationSchool Health Services

Identifiers

PMID25495012
PMCPMC4274678

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.