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Preventing substance misuse: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of the Strengthening Families Programme
Jeremy Segrott1, David Gillespie, Jo Holliday
1Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, 1-3 Museum Place, CF10 3BD Cardiff, UK. segrottj@cardiff.ac.uk.
Background:
Prevention of alcohol, drug and tobacco misuse by young people is a key public health priority. There is a need to develop the evidence base through rigorous evaluations of innovative approaches to substance misuse prevention. The Strengthening Families Programme 10-14 is a universal family-based alcohol, drugs and tobacco prevention programme, which has achieved promising results in US trials, and which now requires cross-cultural assessment. This paper therefore describes the protocol for a randomised controlled trial of the UK version of the Strengthening Families Programme 10-14 (SFP 10-14 UK).
Methods/Design:
The trial comprises a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled effectiveness trial with families as the unit of randomisation, with embedded process and economic evaluations. Participating families will be randomised to one of two treatment groups - usual care with full access to existing services (control group), or usual care plus SFP 10-14 UK (intervention group). The trial has two primary outcomes - the number of occasions that young people report having drunk alcohol in the last 30 days, and drunkenness during the last 30 days, both dichotomised as 'never' and '1-2 times or more'. The main follow-up is at 2 years past baseline, and short-term and intermediate outcomes are also measured at 9 and 15 months.
Discussion:
The results from this trial will provide evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an innovative universal family-based substance misuse prevention programme in a UK context.
Trial Registration:
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN63550893.
