Primary prevention of alcohol misuse: overview and annotated bibliography

Following an overview of conceptual and methodological issues related to alcohol misuse primary prevention and a brief discussion of the most frequently employed primary prevention strategies, a comprehensive annotated bibliography of the alcohol misuse primary prevention literature is presented. Several benefits of presenting detailed annotations, such as allowing readers to (a) examine the various prevention program components, (b) identify the presence or absence of methodological shortcomings, (c) identify whether or not high-risk groups were included as program participants, and (d) evaluate the feasibility of program implementation, are also highlighted. The present article complements previous reviews which have often mixed together the findings of primary and secondary prevention studies and which have typically reported the effects of prevention programming on multiple substance misuse outcomes simultaneously. The practice of simultaneously reporting multiple substance misuse outcomes has made it difficult to interpret the specific effects that primary prevention programs have had on alcohol misuse per se.