Pilot Study of a Brief WeChat Intervention in China to Increase Students' Willingness to Assist a Flushing Student to Reduce Alcohol Use / 예방의학회지

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study tested the effectiveness of a brief alcohol-related intervention delivered by the social media app WeChat to teach about ethanol-induced facial flushing and increase the willingness of students who see another student flushing to suggest that he or she should reduce or stop drinking. In the context of Chinese drinking culture, it is sometimes socially difficult to refuse a drink, even when experiencing physical discomfort, such as flushing. METHODS: Classrooms of students in a medical university in China were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Students in the intervention group were invited to view 3 alcohol education lessons on WeChat during a 2-week period. A pretest and posttest before and after the 2-week period assessed changes in students’ willingness to intervene if they saw someone flush while drinking. Data were collected about students’ alcohol use and their ratings of the lessons. RESULTS: Mixed-design analysis of variance yielded a significant time-by-treatment interaction effect on the variable of willingness to suggest that a flushing person stop or slow down their drinking, and the change was significant between the intervention and control groups. One-way analysis of covariance yielded a significant treatment effect at the posttest, after controlling for the pretest score. Students rated the lessons above the midpoint of the scale for being informative, interesting, and useful. CONCLUSIONS: The pilot study showed that a brief alcohol-related intervention delivered by WeChat could produce a measurable positive change in the willingness of university students to suggest that a student who flushes should stop drinking. This pilot study also suggested improvements for future lessons and evaluation design.

Study on the relationships between cultural orientation, alcohol expectancy, self-efficacy and drinking behavior among senior high school students in two cities of Henan province / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the relationships between alcohol expectancy,cultural orientation, self-efficacy and drinking behavior to provide theoretical support for the development of education programs aimed at preventing alcohol abuse among adolescents.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>An anonymous quantitative survey of 2756 tenth and eleventh grade students in six senior high schools in Zhengzhou and Xinyang city of Henan province was conducted in November 2005 and data was analyzed by SPSS 13.0 software.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The overall rate of drinking alcohol among participants was 56.5%. The median score of cultural orientation was 3.25 (3.09, 3.42); of alcohol expectancy was 3.02 (2.81, 3.23); and 79.64 (60.36, 93.21) of alcohol self-efficacy. Direct or indirect relationships were found between Chinese traditional cultural orientation, western cultural orientation, alcohol positive expectancy, alcohol negative expectancy, alcohol self-efficacy and alcohol drinking behavior. Lower monthly drinking habit was directly associated with higher self-efficacy and higher negative expectancies,lower positive expectancies and lower western cultural orientation (coefficients = -0.346, -0.282, 0.234 and 0.162 respectively), but not with Chinese cultural orientation variables.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The current situation of alcohol drinking among the participants was critical. Drinking behavior seemed most affected by drinking beliefs and cultural orientation, suggesting that the development of education programs should focus on students' beliefs.</p>

Sheesha Smoking among a sample of future teachers in Kuwait

To assess the prevalence of sheesha smoking and the personal, social and environmental factors associated with it. Subjects and A convenience sample of 761 students [261 male, 500 female] in the teacher training program of the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training in Kuwait City answered a 70-question survey regarding sheesha use. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 10. 24.6% of males and 5.5% of the females smoked sheesha. 49.2% of the male sheesha smokers smoked at least one bowl a day, as did 26.9% of the female sheesha smokers. The majority of sheesha smokers first started smoking sheesha at age 18 or older. Almost half were encouraged to smoke sheesha the first time by their friends. The majority of sheesha non-smokers had sheesha non-smokers as friends. Among the sheesha smokers, 59.2% of females and 61.3% of males said all or most of their friends smoked sheesha. Sheesha smokers were more likely than sheesha non-smokers to live in a home where there are other sheesha smokers. Half of the males and one-third of the females who smoked sheesha wanted to quit. The majority of sheesha smokers also smoked cigarettes. Teachers, including female teachers, were frequently seen smoking in their schools. As expected, sheesha smokers had more positive attitudes towards sheesha smoking and were less likely to believe in its harmful effects. This is the first known study of sheesha use among college students in Kuwait. Results suggest efforts to reduce sheesha smoking in this young population should: 1] help young people address pressures from peers, 2] reduce sheesha smoking at home and school environment, 3] counteract personal beliefs and attitudes that contribute to sheesha smoking, and 4] reinforce beliefs about the health risks of sheesha smoking