Group-based Intervention for Club Patrons

Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Aggression; Drinking, Binge; Drink Too Much; Safety Issues; Harm Reduction; Drunk; Aggression Sexual; Drug Use; Peer Group

Treatments: Behavioral: Nightlife Safety Plans (NSP); Behavioral: Fire Safety

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT03652688

AA022331

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a group-based strategy for encouraging groups of young adults who are engaged in party behaviors at nightclubs to intervene with each other to reduce harms associated with overuse of alcohol and recreational drugs and to reduce harms associated with aggression (physical and sexual).

Full description

This study focuses on high risk behaviors (excessive alcohol use, drug use) and unwanted experiences (physical/sexual aggression) that may occur during an evening at a night club for young adults engaged in party behaviors. the goals were: 1) to develop a screener that accurately assesses a group's level of risk for one specific night of club attendance and based upon this assessment, (2) to provide naturally occurring social groups with the necessary skills to identify vulnerability for and to provide them with tools to reduce harms. An algorithm calculated in real time during an entrance survey predicted the types of risks that the group members may encounter during the evening based upon past behaviors and expectations for the evening. Social groups in the experimental condition were exposed to a brief intervention that focused on developing skills described as the 3 O's: a) Outreach-how to approach fellow group members who are at risk, (b) Options-how to suggest options that would increase safety and (c) Out-How to assess when it is time to leave the club. This brief, interactive intervention was delivered by small tablet computers that utilized mobile application technology and cellular wireless service. This low cost delivery was considered important to providing later adoption in the real world and the interactive nature of the intervention was designed to appeal to the young adult population.

Enrollment: 959 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Must be within age range, entering the club that night, group size must be 2 or more

Exclusion criteria

• working or performing at the club that night

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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959 participants in 2 patient groups

Nightlife Safety Plans (NSP)

Experimental group

Description:

Observed indicators that a group member may be in trouble due identified risks were provided and if detected, they were given practical skills on implementing the 3 0's: Outreach, Options, and Out. Outreach consisted of techniques for approaching your friend and acquiring more information whether there was a problem. Options were to be employed if problems were confirmed and were designed to provide easy, simple steps to reduce risks and decrease probability of escalation of problems. Out refers to the plans the group made before entering the club that they would leave as a group to keep the group members safe. Group commitment to implement these safety steps was emphasized. Interactive and visually attractive scenes were drawn as graphic images to avoid didactic delivery.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Nightlife Safety Plans (NSP)

Fire Safety

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Groups in the control condition were also given information on safety and the focus of this safety message was regarding fires in nightclubs. Groups were given didactic materials to read with some still images. There were a few questions for the group to address.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Fire Safety