Effects of the sipITT alcohol misuse intervention: A pilot project

1. Effects of the sipITT alcohol misuse intervention: A pilot project Jackie Ruttledge Department of Health and Leisure Institute of Technology Tralee

2. Problem and Background • Poor attendance, engagement, performance and retention during 2012/2013 • Alcohol was a significant factor contributing to this behaviour. • 83% (n=102) of students were found to binge drink, those who binge drink claimed to do so on an average of 2.5 nights per week. • In UCC, Cahill and Byrne (2010) reported that 83% (n=151) of students admitted to having had a binge in the previous 12 months. • At 3rd level, out of 21 countries, Ireland has the highest level of binge drinking (Dantzer et al, 2006)

3. Abundance of evidence to suggest that heavy drinking among students has a negative effect on student success and ultimately student retention (Wechsler et al, 2000, Singleton, 2007, Martinez et al, 2008 Wolfson 2009). • The CLAN study (2005) reported that students who regularly binge drink were twice as likely to miss college compared to non-binge drinkers (61% v 27%) • Other adverse consequences include harm to: • Physical health • brain damage, sexually transmitted infections, accidents and injuries • Mental health • 92% of suicides tested positive for alcohol in people under 30 (Bedford, et al 2006)

4. Aims • To reduce levels of dangerous and destructive drinking among first year health and leisure students • Reduce the adverse health and social consequences attributable to alcohol • To improve student retention, performance, engagement and attendance. • To support and promote the health and general wellbeing of the student cohort

5. Methods Guest speaker – Shane Mullins (Inspirational talk on his life after a horrific car accident caused by drink driving) Alcohol awareness stand ‘hydrate to stay out late’ sipITTfacebook page Free activities: Massage, fitness testing, personal training, bootcamp, yoga, gym, soccer Student concession nights - Aqua Dome, Bowling Buddies Weekly schedule of events • Launched sipITT project during induction programme to try to encourage an alternative culture • e-PUB online intervention • Drugs/alcohol drop in centre every Monday morning (NC) • Alcohol/Drugs awareness workshops during health studies – lifestyle and health module • Ma’s and Da’s mentoring programme • Brief interventions training for staff

6. Applying the Principles of Health Promotion

8. SipITTActivity Schedule

12. Data Collection Methods Evaluation is ongoing e-PUB online intervention (Includes AUDIT) • Completed 3 times during the year in class time with associated workshops and tutorials Student questionnaire • Administered twice during class time (December/April). Staff interviews • Conducted during December and will repeated again next week • Students services – nurse, councillor • Students Union • H & L Course board External Interviews (ongoing) • Tralee Community Drugs Initiative • Local Gardaí • Michael Byrne, UCC • HSE

13. Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) Ten-question test developed by the World Health Organization to determine if a person's alcohol consumption may be harmful Category questions: • Questions 1-3 deal with alcohol consumption • Questions 4-6 relate to alcohol dependence • Questions 7-10 consider alcohol related problems Scoring • Scores for each question range from 0 - 4 • Score of 8 or more - associated with harmful or hazardous drinking • Score of 13 or more in women, and 15 or more in men - likely to indicate alcohol dependence

14. Key Findings between Time 1 and Time 2 • Decrease from 65.4% to 55.2% in overall scores of 8 or more • Males increased from 28.6% to 41.3% for scores 0 to 7, and decreased from 71.4% to 58.7% for scores of 8 or more • Half of Female students had a score of 0 to 7 • The score for likely alcohol dependence for females decreased from 21.6% to 12.5%

15. Staff Feedback “Decrease in H & L students attending health centre due to an alcohol/drugs related problem” “Horan’s has been on the phone asking if student’s are boycotting because of low numbers” “on the practical side, this is the first year that I haven’t had students coming in hungover which is a huge difference” “There’s a huge change in the culture within first years particularly they are much more positive, they are much more engaged, they are much more supportive of each other…… “Brief interventions training was very useful, I feel more confident to ask the question now. In fact I would have to say that 99% of the time it has been worth asking the question”

16. Suggestions and Actions “Keep sports teams training throughout semester 2” • sipITT Fun Tri Challenge on 7th April with 4 weeks of dedicated training. • Group running sessions and couch to 5Km (8 weeks training programme) “Thursday night would be a better night to plan activities because that’s when they do tend to go out drinking” • Aoife Hearne (Operation Transformation) nutrition talk took place on Thurs 20 Feb. Other activities on Thursday evenings, i.e cycling

21. End of Year Outcome Indictors • Reduction in alcohol misuse • Improvement in student retention • Improvement in exam results • Increased attendance.

22. In the 8 to 12 category, there was a decrease across the 3 time points (36.4% - time 1, 30.8% - time 2, 25.6% - time 3) • Decrease for scores 0 to 7 from 44.9% to 39.5%, however still an improvement on time 1 (34.6%) • There was an increase in the above 12 scores. • Limitations -timing, appropriateness of AUDIT as a repeated measure • (not sensitive enough), data not matched

27. Where do we go from here? • Complete final review of sipITT pilot project • Consider Implementing school-wide (Health and Social Sciences School) • Additional action items/improvements for 2014/2015 • Set up a sipITT research group • Apply a planning and evaluation model (LEAP) • Review methodology for future implementation – survey tool • Improve mentor training – content and timing • Additional guest speakers • Healthy eating/cookery demonstrations