Aims: The present paper aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the community-based substance use prevention program "Wegschauen ist keine Losung".
Methods: Communities of the district of Karlsruhe were divided into a group with high (HIG) and low (LIG) program implementation fidelity. In 2011, a school survey was conducted among 892 adolescents in grades 9 and 10 of regular schools in the district of Karlsruhe. The Bavarian sample of the 2011 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) was used as external comparison group (n=1635).
Results: Only few differences were found between HIG and LIG with regard to alcohol consumption and negative consequences. Compared to the external ESPAD comparison group, students in Karlsruhe showed lower 30-day prevalence of alcohol use (66.0 vs. 80.5 %), lower consumption quantity (17.17 vs. 34.91 grams of ethanol per drinking day) and lower frequency of use (0.75 vs. 1.21 days within the last week).
Conclusions: Considering restrictions of the limited study design there are indications of possible positive effects of the project "Wegschauen ist keine Losung". However, for methodological sound evaluations of community-based prevention programs pre-post studies with clearly defined control conditions are needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract).
