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Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders |
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Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders |
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Reducing Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies Through the Use
of Community-Level Guided Self-Change Programs
Community resources for assisting individuals who are
problem drinkers but who are not alcohol-dependent are limited in most
communities. Over the past decade, increasing attention has been directed
toward programs focused on engaging the individual’s own capacity for
self-change as a means of achieving recovery from alcohol problems. This
approach is supported by findings that up to 75% of individuals who change
their problem drinking habits do so without the use of formal treatment
programs. Guided self-change (GSC) programs tend to be of low intensity as
compared with traditional treatments, targeted toward the community at
large, and focused on problem drinkers as opposed to severely
alcohol-dependent drinkers. The goal of these programs is to attract and
assist motivated individuals in the early stages of alcohol abuse to take
part in an intervention aimed at facilitating a client-driven, self-change
process of alcohol reduction or abstinence. GSC intervention components are
similar to those of brief interventions and include personal feedback,
advice, goal-setting, and self-monitoring of behavior reformatted into
self-administered materials that can be completed at home.
In 2004, CDC funded two universities to 1) develop, implement, and evaluate
community-level, self-guided change projects targeting women 18 to 44 years
of age who are at risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy; and 2) demonstrate
a 15% reduction in the proportion of women at risk for an alcohol-exposed
pregnancy in community-based intervention sites as compared with
non-intervention community-based sites.
Funded Projects:
Nova Southeastern University—Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
An intervention will be instituted for a sample of women 18 to 44 years
of age who are at risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy in three
counties in south Florida. Participants will be recruited through the
media (e.g., newspaper advertisements, mail flyers, television,
billboards, and radio public service announcements). Once respondents
are screened and determined to be eligible, they will be randomly
assigned either to a motivational intervention promoting self-change, or
to a control intervention that will provide information only about the
risk of fetal alcohol syndrome. The intervention group will receive a
one-time mailing about how to either reduce alcohol consumption or
increase use of effective birth control. Women who are unsuccessful at
reducing their risk can access professional services for help. The
specific goals of the study are to 1) determine the degree to which
participants decrease their risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy, and
2) determine the level of use of professional resources for self-change.
The efficacy of the intervention will be evaluated and the results will
be disseminated to health care providers in the local community. For
more information about the program at Nova Southeastern University,
contact the Guided Self-Change Clinic at (954) 262-5968 or visit their
web site at http://www.nova.edu/gsc.
St. Louis University—St. Louis, Missouri
A community-based self-change project will be conducted with the goal of
reducing the risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancies by 15% among
African-American women in St. Louis. St. Louis has a high number of
childbearing age women in an at-risk community, with a high prevalence of
binge drinking that continues during pregnancy. Kansas City is the
comparison community. Baseline risk for alcohol-exposed pregnancies in both
St. Louis and Kansas City will be assessed using a random digit dial
survey. Behaviors relating to both alcohol use and contraceptive use will
be assessed. Recruitment of participants will take place through
advertisements in the media, through the random digit dial survey, and
through health care provider offices and WIC clinics. Educational materials
about reducing at-risk drinking or increasing proper use of birth control
will be mailed to participants, but will also be available through the
Internet. These materials will guide participants through a self-change
process. Follow-up will occur 4 months after enrollment.
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Date: May 2, 2006
Content source: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental
Disabilities
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