SynthesisThe American journal of drug and alcohol abuse2016
A meta-analysis of brief alcohol interventions for adolescents and young adults: variability in effects across alcohol measures.
Synthesis in The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of brief substance use interventions delivered in general medical settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2022Pooled it
- Using Machine Learning to Identify and Investigate Moderators of Alcohol Use Intervention Effects in Meta-Analyses.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic review of gene-by-intervention studies of alcohol and other substance use.Development and psychopathology · 2021Pooled it
- Psychosocial interventions for reducing alcohol consumption in sub-Saharan African settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Pooled it
- More behavioral recommendations produce more change: A meta-analysis of efficacy of multibehavior recommendations to reduce nonmedical substance use.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2020Pooled it
- A systematic review of interventions for reducing heavy episodic drinking in sub-Saharan African settings.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- Evidence Base on Outpatient Behavioral Treatments for Adolescent Substance Use, 2014-2017: Outcomes, Treatment Delivery, and Promising Horizons.Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53Pooled it
- Trial
- Elucidating the Effect of a Brief Drinking Intervention Using Neuroimaging: A Preliminary Study.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2019Trial
- Trial
- A Systematic Review of Evidence-Based Interventions to Reduce Binge Drinking.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- ADHD Symptomatology is Associated with Alcohol Use and Consequences via Drinking Norms.Substance use & misuse · 2025Article
- Article
- Event-level contextual predictors of high-intensity drinking events among young adults.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2022Article
- Meta-analytic approaches for examining complexity and heterogeneity in studies of adolescent development.Journal of adolescence · 2019Article
- Advances in the science and treatment of alcohol use disorder.Science advances · 2019Review
- Comparative Effectiveness of Brief Alcohol Interventions for College Students: Results from a Network Meta-Analysis.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2019Review
- Retrospective analysis of alcohol testing in trauma team activation patients at a Canadian tertiary trauma centre.BMJ open · 2018Observational
- Manifesto for a European research network into Problematic Usage of the Internet.European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBrief alcohol interventions are one approach for reducing drinking among youth, but may vary in effectiveness depending on the type of alcohol assessments used to measure effects.
objectivesTo conduct a meta-analysis that examined the effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions for adolescents and young adults, with particular emphasis on exploring variability in effects across outcome measurement characteristics.
methodEligible studies were those using an experimental or quasi-experimental design to examine the effects of a brief alcohol intervention on a post-intervention alcohol use measure for youth aged 11-30. A comprehensive literature review identified 190 unique samples that were included in the meta-analysis. Taking a Bayesian approach, we used random-effects multilevel models to estimate the average effect and model variability across outcome measurement types.
resultsBrief alcohol interventions led to significant reductions in self-reported alcohol use among adolescents (g = 0.25, 95% credible interval [CrI 0.13, 0.37]) and young adults (g = 0.15, 95% CrI [0.12, 0.18]). These results were consistent across outcomes with varying reference periods, but varied across outcome construct type and assessment instruments. Among adolescents, effects were larger when measured using the Timeline Followback; among young adults, effects were smaller when measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.
conclusionThe strength of the beneficial effects of brief alcohol interventions on youth's alcohol use may vary depending upon the outcome measure utilized. Nevertheless, significant effects were observed across measures. Although effects were modest in size, they were clinically significant and show promise for interrupting problematic alcohol use trajectories among youth.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.