| | Preventing
Minority Drinking Problems (PMDP)
Principal
Investigator: Paul J. Gruenewald, Ph.D.
The
PMDP project builds upon ongoing research at NIAAA to develop
and apply ethnic minority-specific preventive interventions
in US states, counties, cities and communities. While the
development and application of ethnic minority-specific preventive
interventions has continued apace in the US, scientific evaluations
of these interventions have lagged behind. The PMDP project
aims to: (1) assess the degree to which preventive interventions
shown to be effective in the general population can be generalized
to ethnic minority populations in the US; (2) assess the degree
to which preventive interventions can be, and have been, specifically
tailored to ethnic minority groups; and (3) determine where
novel interventions may be needed or targeted to minority
groups.
In
the first phase of the investigation, efforts focused on three
questions. First, what is the scope of the research literature
on the effects of preventive interventions on the drinking
patterns and problems of minorities? Second, across the broad
class of preventive intervention studies, to what extent have
overall effects been replicated in ethnic minority sub-populations
and can such effects be further studied? In addressing these
two questions, project staff compiled and reviewed a bibliography
of published and unpublished works in the areas of alcohol
problem prevention, minority drinking problems and patterns,
minority-specific preventive interventions (non-alcohol) and
minority-specific alcohol problem prevention. The third question
was, what facets of ethnic minority drinking patterns and
problems are unique to conditioning the outcomes of preventive
intervention efforts? To address this question, project staff
developed the Minority Drinking Problems Interventions Assessment
Form, based on the Maryland Scale of Scientific Method, developed
for the National Institute of Justice, and the Center for
Substance Abuse Prevention Program Summary Form. These comprehensive
tools for evaluating preventive interventions were adapted
for the PMDP project by including items for tracking processes,
measuring cultural competence, and identifying program objectives
related to substance abuse.
An
expert panel was convened to guide and advise project leaders
on appropriate data sources, procedures for the literature
reviews, and final scientific criteria for determining the
quality of the data and evaluation technologies. The expert
panel was tasked with guiding the process of determining facets
of ethnic minority drinking environments, patterns and problems
that are unique to different ethnic minority groups and could
affect the efficacy of preventive interventions. The panel
was also asked to provide a broader view of the ethnic minority
prevention research literature dealing with other health outcomes,
and to identify factors and processes that may either enhance
or reduce the effectiveness of interventions studied among
ethnic minority groups.
In
the second phase of the project, staff applied the assessment
tool to available project documentation for alcohol problem
prevention projects. Based on this review, staff identified
data sets with sizable numbers of ethnic minority subjects
in tests of preventive interventions but which were not analyzed
or reported in terms of race or ethnicity.
In
the third and final phase of the research, selected data sets
are being subjected to secondary analyses. Recommendations
as to our current state of knowledge concerning minority-tailored
interventions, "best practices" based on that knowledge,
and directions for future research will be formulated in a
final summary document.
Proceed
to PRC CD Presentation featuring Dr. Paul J. Gruenewald
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