Research Projects

Substance Use Prevention Program (Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Marijuana) in Adolescents Attending Public Institutions in the city of Cartagena, Colombia

colombia

Target Population:
Adolescents in seventh grades of public schools in the city of Cartagena
Project Team:

Faculty of Nursing - University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia., (Facultad de Enfermeria – Universidad de Cartagena, Colombia), Global Center for Applied Health Research – Arizona State University

Project Status: Active

To evaluate the effectiveness of a program for the prevention of the consumption of psychoactive substances (cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana) Mantente REAL, in adolescents between 10-14 years old in official educational institutions in the city of Cartagena, Colombia

It is expected to reduce favorable attitudes towards substance use, reduce the intention to use, and improve the perception of subjective norms, resistance skills, and rejection of use.

An experimental study was carried out in an adolescent school population of educational institutions in locality 2 of the city of Cartagena. Since it is a pilot study, the sample will be 300 students for the intervention group and 300 for the control group in a random manner. Before (pretest) and after (posttest) of the Stay REAL program, instruments will be applied to evaluate variables such as frequency of substance use, intentions towards consumption and strategies to avoid peer pressure. The program will be adapted to the Cartagena context and 12 sessions will be applied once a week. The statistical analysis will be obtained by means of intention-to-treat, estimating the absolute reduction of risk and the number needed to treat. The Stay Real Preventive Program was implemented in two educational institutions in the city of Cartagena, a public one with 86 students and a private one with 86 students, who satisfactorily developed all the lessons of the Stay Real Preventive Program. A public school of the experimental group San Juan de Damascus did not complete the workshops, that is, they abandoned the experiment. .  Finally, 172 seventh-grade adolescents from a public and a private institution in the city of Cartagena were impacted.