Two-thirds of college students are current drinkers of alcoholic beverages. One in three college students report past month binge drinking (five or more drinks in a row), and one in ten report high intensity drinking (ten or more drinks in a row). Greater student alcohol consumption and heavy drinking on a given day are linked to increased sexual activity and risky sexual behavior, such as unprotected sex and sex with casual partners. This puts students at risk for negative health outcomes, such as sexually-transmitted infections, and other harmful consequences, such as sexual victimization.

Klein Buendel is collaborating with Dr. Anne Ray at the University of Kentucky on a new research project designed to curb drinking and risky sexual behavior by first-year college students. The new study will assess the impact of a brief, personalized intervention utilizing an innovative, cross-tailored, dynamic feedback component. The intervention will purposefully integrate content on the relationship between alcohol use and risky sexual behavior. The intervention will leverage technology to incorporate daily assessments of student behavior and deliver weekly dynamic feedback. Participating students will be asked to complete four diary entries each week for three months.

A hybrid effectiveness-implementation design will allow the investigators to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated personalized feedback intervention with 600 first-year college students at two college sites in a randomized controlled trial. In addition, formative evaluation with local and national stakeholders (students and student affairs staff) will help to better understand factors that influence implementation and ensure its success and sustained use.   

This research project is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health (AA028246; Dr. Anne Ray, Principal Investigator). Collaborators include Dr. David Buller from Klein Buendel. KB’s Creative Team will develop the web-based program for college students.