If students are given personalized feedback on their drinking behavior and the social norms associated with the problem, it could help them reduce alcohol misuse, according
If students are given personalized feedback on their drinking behavior and the social norms associated with the problem, it could help them reduce alcohol misuse, according to a Cochrane Systematic Review.
Many social science researches have claimed that students tend to overestimate the amount of alcohol that their peers consume.And such a misconception causes many students to have misguided views about whether their own behavior is normal and may contribute to the 1.8 million alcohol related deaths every year.
Thus, the researchers have claimed that social norms interventions, which provide feedback about own and peer-drinking behaviors, could help deal with these misconceptions.
They analysed data from 22 trials that together included 7,275 college and university students, mostly studying in the US.
It was found that students who were provided with personalized feedback via the Internet or individual face-to-face sessions drank less often, and indulged in less binge drinking than those in control groups.
Web-based feedback also resulted in significant reductions in blood alcohol content, and alcohol-related problems.
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"We can't make direct comparisons between the different interventions, but based on a small number of studies web-based interventions would certainly seem to be a cost-effective option for reducing alcohol misuse," said lead researcher Maria Teresa Moreira, from the School of Health and Social Care at Oxford Brookes University in the UK.
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Source-ANI
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