Das JK, Salam RA, Arshad A, Finkelstein Y,
Bhutta ZA.
Abstract
Many
unhealthy behaviors often begin during adolescence and represent major public
health challenges. Substance abuse has a major impact on individuals, families,
and communities, as its effects are cumulative, contributing to costly social,
physical, and mental health problems. We conducted an overview of systematic
reviews to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to prevent
substance
abuse among adolescents. We report findings from a total of 46 systematic
reviews focusing on interventions for smoking/tobacco use, alcohol use, drug
use, and combined substance abuse. Our overview findings suggest that among
smoking/tobacco interventions, school-based prevention programs and
family-based intensive interventions typically addressing family functioning
are effective in reducing smoking. Mass media campaigns are also effective
given that these were of reasonable intensity over extensive periods of time.
Among interventions for alcohol use, school-based alcohol prevention
interventions have been associated with reduced frequency of drinking, while
family-based interventions have a small but persistent effect on alcohol misuse
among adolescents. For drug abuse, school-based interventions based on a
combination of social competence and social influence approaches have shown
protective effects against drugs and cannabis use. Among the interventions
targeting combined substance abuse, school-based primary prevention programs
are effective. Evidence from Internet-based interventions, policy initiatives,
and incentives appears to be mixed and needs further research. Future research
should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of specific interventions
components with standardized intervention and outcome measures. Various
delivery platforms, including digital platforms and policy initiative, have the
potential to improve substance abuse outcomes among adolescents; however, these
require further research.
