Prevention program reduces meth use by teens

	Tweet

A drug prevention program for sixth-graders can help prevent them from using methamphetamine years later, a new study shows.

“We think that this makes a really important point about the power of prevention to address a critically important drug problem,” Dr. Richard L. Spoth of Iowa State University in Ames told Reuters Health. “It’s really a big problem, and I think we have a way of dealing with it.”

According to 2004 figures, more than 6 percent of high school seniors have used methamphetamine at least once, Spoth and his team point out in their report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. However, there has been no research on how effective drug prevention programs are in preventing kids from using meth.

In their two-part study, the researchers tested the effectiveness of prevention programs designed to help improve parent-child communications and assist kids in building life skills, such as solving problems and dealing with peer pressure. “These interventions are fairly brief and they don’t cost that much,” Spoth noted.

The first part of the study involved 667 sixth-graders at 33 rural public schools. The children were assigned to participate in the Iowa Strengthening Families Program, the Preparing for the Drug Free Years program, or a comparison group that did not participate in a program.

The second part involved 679 seventh-graders from 36 rural public schools. These children were assigned to a revised Iowa Strengthening Families Program given with or without the Life Skills Training program, or the Life Skills Training program alone.

None of the children in the first part of the study who participated in the Iowa Strengthening Families Program had tried meth when they were followed up 6.5 years later, compared with 3.5 percent of the children in the comparison group. However, there were no significant differences in meth use between the comparison group and the Preparing for the Drug Free Years program group.

In the second part of the study, kids who participated in any one or a combination of prevention programs were less likely to have tried or to be currently using meth 4.5 years compared with the children in the comparison group.

In an interview, Spoth pointed out that all of the interventions in the current study have been rigorously tested and shown to be effective in preventing other types of substance use. Researchers have long understood that such programs work better when they’re engaging, fun, and light on the lectures, he added.

“There’s just a minimum amount of lecturing, there’s a lot of demonstration of skills and coaching in skills, that sort of activity,” he explained. It’s also essential that such proven programs be implemented with careful attention to quality, he added.

Based on the current findings, Spoth estimates that in a classroom of 200 high school seniors who participated in the prevention program as middle schoolers, just five would have tried meth, compared with 15 in a classroom of 200 kids who hadn’t participated in the program.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, September 2006.

RELATED STORIES:
Tips To Keep Kids Safe When They Play In And Around Water   Early Oral Health Care Is Important to a Child’s Development   When moms get flu shot, babies benefit too: study   Reforms Needed in Health Care Services for Adolescents   Mom’s solvent exposure may affect kids’ development   Breastfed babies cope better with stress in later life than bottle fed babies   Maltreatment common for U.S. children   Newest screen for newborns will indicate heart problems   Apartment-dwelling children in nonsmoking units still exposed   US children healthier, except minorities   Eating habits and exercise behaviors in children can deteriorate early   Teething an unlikely cause of serious symptoms

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]