# An Adaptive Preventive Intervention to Optimize the Transition from Universal to Indicated Resources for College Student Alcohol Use

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $406,218

## Abstract

College student alcohol use and associated negative consequences are public health problems. In particular,
first-year students transitioning to college are at increased risk. Scarce intervention resources must be used as
wisely as possible to address these concerns. One way to address heavy drinking while conserving resources
is to first utilize universal interventions, identify students at high risk who do not respond well, and then
motivate them to engage in indicated intervention. This approach to prevention is `adaptive' because
information about the student in the course of the intervention (e.g., response status) is used to determine
whether more resources should be invested to motivate the student to transition to indicated services. The
purpose of the proposed project is to implement adaptive preventive intervention (API) that employs cost-
effective, technology-based brief interventions to do the following. First, provide a universal personalized
normative feedback (PNF) intervention followed by student self-monitoring (SM). Second, motivate students
who continue to drink heavily (i.e., 2+ reports of 4/5+ drinks for women/men, or 1 report of 8/10+ drinks for
women/men) to transition to additional intervention resources. To optimize the efficacy of this intervention, we
will investigate the best timing for delivering the initial universal PNF+SM intervention (i.e., as an inoculation
before moving to college vs. once they are experiencing the college context during their first semester).
Additionally, we will examine how best to motivate heavy-drinking students to pursue indicated intervention
(i.e., via automated emails vs. online interaction with a personal health coach using mBridge). A sequential
multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART) design (N=700) will be used to address these questions.
College students will be randomized to receive PNF either before college begins (2 weeks before classes start)
or during the beginning of the first semester (about 3 weeks after they arrive on campus), followed by SM
every two weeks during the first semester; these SM assessments will be used to identify heavy-drinking
students who remain at risk. Once heavy drinking is identified, the student will be re-randomized to either an
automated email or mBridge coach to offer indicated intervention resources. The specific aims are to examine:
(1) the efficacy of the API compared to an assessment-only control, (2) whether the API can be optimized by
altering the timing of the universal intervention and/or the type of message to motivate seeking indicated
intervention, and (3) moderators of these effects (e.g., pre-college drinking intentions, high-intensity [compared
to binge] drinking during the start of college). Frequency of heavy drinking, alcohol-related consequences, and
health services utilization will be assessed prior to the start of classes, and at each follow-up point (the end of
the semester, the end of the year, and the following fall). T...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10333070
- **Project number:** 7R01AA026574-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Megan E. Patrick
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $406,218
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2021-02-01 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10333070

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10333070, An Adaptive Preventive Intervention to Optimize the Transition from Universal to Indicated Resources for College Student Alcohol Use (7R01AA026574-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10333070. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*