A Media Based Motivational Intervention to Prevent Alcohol Exposed Pregnancies (AEPs)

• Effective contraception [ Time Frame: 6 months post intervention ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

• Alcohol use [ Time Frame: 6 months postintervention ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

The proposed project will evaluate the effectiveness of a media-based self-guided motivational intervention to reduce alcohol-exposed pregnancies (AEP). Participants will be women 18 to 44 years of age who are at risk of an AEP. The community targeted will be Florida. The intervention will be based on the investigators' previous experience in promoting self-change of drinking behavior at a community level and in promoting reduced risk for AEP through the use of a motivational intervention. Using a randomized group design, the self-guided motivational intervention will be compared to an intervention directed at preventing fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The FAS prevention condition will serve as a standard treatment control group in that most information available at the community level concerning the effects of alcohol on the developing fetus relate to FAS (e.g., warning labels on alcoholic beverage containers). It is suggested that many women at risk for AEP do not view themselves as at risk for FAS and therefore do not view FAS-oriented prevention messages as personally relevant. The proposed experimental design will evaluate a media-based strategy that could be easily implemented throughout communities. The proposed study design will have more methodological rigor and allow a more careful evaluation than would be possible if the intervention was initially targeted at the entire community. If successful, the intervention results can be readily disseminated throughout the local area. Specific objectives are as follows:

1. Develop an evidence-based intervention to reduce alcohol-exposed pregnancies that can be easily disseminated at a community level through the mail and other media outlets.
2. Implement the AEP prevention intervention using a randomized controlled trial with women recruited from a community at higher than normal risk for AEPs.
3. Evaluate the efficacy of the AEP prevention intervention for reducing AEP risk as compared to a community level intervention aimed at preventing FAS.
4. Disseminate results of the study to health care providers in the local community.