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Abstract
Background Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.) is an immersive 1 day in-hospital injury awareness and prevention programme designed to educate high-school students on the consequences of a variety of risk-taking behaviours. This multisite contemporary analysis examined differences in programme effect and temporal changes on participant knowledge and attitudes.
Methods Metropolitan and rural schools were invited to attend the programme at one of the 11 hospital sites throughout Queensland, Australia. Pre–post study design with participant questionnaires provided at three time periods: immediately preprogramme and postprogramme, and 4 months later. The questionnaire used scenarios to determine a participant’s opinion on the safety of drugs/alcohol, driving and risk-taking activities, using Likert scales.
Results A total of 5999 students participated in the programme between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2019. Responses to all questions related to safety, harm or risk followed a similar pattern. The immediate postcourse responses demonstrated significant increased awareness of risk or change in action, followed by a decay at 4 months to within 10% of preprogramme levels. Public school students, males and students from Central and North Queensland demonstrated lower risk-aversion (p<0.05).
Conclusion This study demonstrated across more than 100 school sites, the positive change in knowledge and student participant attitudes towards risk-taking behaviours after attending the P.A.R.T.Y. programme. The need to address the significant decay at the 4-month follow-up was identified. Findings offered potential for tailoring of messaging to target key demographic groups/topics where the decay was greatest.
- education
- adolescent
- school
- alcohol
- attitudes
- program evaluation
Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Data obtained from consented participants are held by RBWH, Metro North HHS, Qld, Australia.
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Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Data obtained from consented participants are held by RBWH, Metro North HHS, Qld, Australia.
Footnotes
Contributors CMC jointly conceived and assisted with conducting this study. She led the study development and approvals; funding applications; provided interpretation of the results and led the manuscript development. RE jointly conceived and assisted with conducting this study. He provided input into the study development; funding applications; led the statistical analysis, provided interpretation of the results, and contributed to the manuscript development and review. CJ conducted the statistical analysis and contributed to the manuscript revision and review. RO’N provided invaluable insights as the Statewide P.A.R.T.Y. Program Manager, contributed to the study development, interpretation of the results and contributed to the manuscript revision and review. MH jointly conceived the study, contributed to the study development, interpretation of the results and contributed to the manuscript revision and review.
Funding The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) hold the P.A.R.T.Y. multi-site licence and provide administration and coordination of all programs in Queensland. The P.A.R.T.Y. Program is funded in partnership with the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads and past funding from Australian Associated Motor Insurers Limited (AAMI). This study was supported by a Brisbane Diamantina Health Partners (BDHP) seed grant (no grant number).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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