The Intersection of Alcohol and Sex: Engineering an Online STI Prevention Program
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- Penn State University
- Enrollment
- 3,098
- Locations
- 8
- Primary Endpoint
- Attitudes about sexual violence
Study Overview
Brief Summary
The overall objective of the proposed research is to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among college students. The investigators propose to accomplish this by using the innovative, engineering-inspired multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) to develop a highly effective, appealing, economical, and readily scalable internet-delivered behavioral intervention targeting the intersection of alcohol use and sexual risk behavior. The rate of STIs on college campuses is alarming: one in four college students is diagnosed with an STI at least once during their college experience. Sexual activity when drinking alcohol is highly prevalent among college students. Alcohol use is known to contribute to the sexual risk behaviors that are most responsible for the transmission of STIs, namely unprotected sex, contact with numerous partners, and "hook-ups" (casual sexual encounters). Few interventions have been developed that explicitly target the intersection of alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors, and none have been optimized. In order to reduce the incidence of STI transmission among this and other high-risk groups, a new approach is needed. MOST is a comprehensive methodological framework that brings the power of engineering principles to bear on optimization of behavioral interventions. MOST enables researchers to experimentally test the individual components in an intervention to determine their effectiveness, indicating which components need to be revised and re-tested. Given the high rates of alcohol use and sex among college students, the college setting provides an ideal opportunity for intervening on alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors. The proposed study will include a diverse population of college students on 4 campuses which will increase the generalizability of the findings. The specific aims are to (1) develop and pilot test an initial set of online intervention components targeting the link between alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors, (2) use the MOST approach to build an optimized preventive intervention, and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of the newly optimized preventive intervention using a fully powered randomized controlled trial (RCT). This work will result in a new, more potent behavioral intervention that will reduce the incidence of STIs among college students in the US, and will lay the groundwork for a new generation of highly effective STI prevention interventions aimed at other subpopulations at risk.
Detailed Description
As part of the MOST approach, the investigators have conducted two optimization trials (NCT02897804 and NCT 03408743) to identify the optimized intervention. The current study is the randomized controlled trial of the optimized intervention.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Factorial
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to 30 Years (Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Currently enrolled at an American college or University
- •A first-year college student
- •18 years or older
- •Have not gone through previous versions of itMatters
Exclusion Criteria
- •Not a first year student or transfer student
- •Younger than 18 years old
- •Have gone through previous versions of itMatters
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Attitudes about sexual violence
Time Frame: This measure will be assessed 60 days post-intervention.
Four items ask about perceptions of sexual violence, including language, consent, pressure, and inappropriate touching. The scale will reflect the average perceptions of sexual violence attitudes.
Unprotected behavior at most recent vaginal or anal sex collected via online questionnaire
Time Frame: Condom use will be assessed 60 days post-intervention.
Two items ask whether or not a condom was used for vaginal or anal sex, for those who indicated recently having vaginal or anal sex. The variables will be reported as prevalence of this behavior and likely used as a dichotomous variable (unprotected/protected) in regression analyses.
Penetrative sex at most recent hookup collected via online questionnaire
Time Frame: This measure will be assessed 60 days post-intervention
This item asks whether or not the most recent hookup included vaginal or anal sex. This will be reported as prevalence of the behavior and likely used as a dichotomous variable in regression analyses.
Secondary Outcomes
- Injunctive norms about the intersection of alcohol and sex(This measure will be assessed 60 days post-intervention.)
- Descriptive norms about the intersection of alcohol and sex(This measure will be assessed 60 days post-intervention.)