Internet based interventions for young people with problematic substance use: A systematic review

Abstract

Objective: To conduct a systematic review of randomised trials of web-basedinterventions for problematic substance use by adolescents and young adults.Data sources: An extensive search conducted in February 2009 of computer databases(MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Current Contents) and manual searches of key references.Study selection: Randomised comparisons of fully automated web-based interventionsspecifically targeting adolescents and young adults (ie, typically school or tertiarystudents, 25 years old) versus other interventions.Data synthesis: 16 relevant studies were identified, and data were extracted from 13of the 14 reporting on alcohol use by young adults. The alcohol interventions had a smalleffect overall (d = - 0.22) and for specific outcomes (level of alcohol consumption,d = - 0.12; binge or heavy drinking frequency, d = - 0.35; alcohol-related social problems,d = - 0.57). The interventions were not effective (d = - 0.001) in preventing subsequentdevelopment of alcohol-related problems among people who were non-drinkers atbaseline. Due to methodological differences, data from the two studies reporting ontobacco interventions among adolescents were not combined.Conclusions: Based on findings largely from tertiary students, web interventionstargeting alcohol-related problems have an effect about equivalent to brief in-personinterventions, but with the advantage that they can be delivered to a far largerproportion of the target population. Web-based interventions to prevent thedevelopment of alcohol-related problems in those who do not currently drink appear tohave minimal impact. There are currently insufficient data to assess the effectiveness ofMJA 2010; 192: S15–S21web-based interventions for tobacco use by adolescents.