Alcohol programmes cut drinking, but not heavy drinking.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   About 24,300 first-year college students took part in 41 trials, mostly at large public universities in the U.S. Most were women (57%), and their average age was 19.

2. 02

   What they did

   Most had a single session of under an hour, usually one-to-one. The other group mostly only did assessments, and some had a different session.

3. 03

   What happened

   Students drank less per week or month than the other group, and less on drinking days or in set periods. They also drank on fewer days, but heavy drinking and alcohol problems did not change clearly. Drops were bigger against groups that only did assessments; against a different session, heavy drinking went up.

What the review found

1. Helped

   First-year students who took part in alcohol programmes drank less per week or month than the other group.

   Pooled analysis of 42 studies · vs people who only did assessments, or a different session · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. Helped

   Students in alcohol programmes drank less on drinking days or in set periods than the other group.

   Pooled analysis of 20 studies · vs people who only did assessments, or a different session · they rated themselves · ⚠ signs that small negative studies went unpublished; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

3. Helped

   First-year students in alcohol programmes drank on fewer days than the other group.

   Pooled analysis of 15 studies · vs people who only did assessments, or a different session · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

4. No difference

   Students in alcohol programmes did not drink heavily less often than the other group.

   Pooled analysis of 28 studies · vs people who only did assessments, or a different session · they rated themselves · ⚠ signs that small negative studies went unpublished; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source