Study Questions Impact of Anti-Drug Coalitions on Drug UseOctober 24, 2002
Research Summary
The authors of a new study assert that community-based coalitions may not be effective in reducing alcohol and other drug use, UPI reported Oct. 21.Researchers at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Chapel Hill, N.C., found that while specific anti-drug programs are beneficial, broad-based coalitions are not inherently effective in cutting drug use on a community-wide basis.
The study was commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to evaluate its Fighting Back community coalition initiative. The foundation began funding the anti-drug program in the late 1980s (Join Together is the national program office for Fighting Back).
Researchers used random telephone surveys to compare 12 Fighting Back communities nationwide with two similar but unaffiliated communities in the same state. The surveys asked about alcohol and drug use, awareness of treatment options, drug treatment received, awareness of drug sales, and awareness of community anti-drug message campaigns.
The study found that communities with coalitions had no better drug-use outcomes than their neighbors. "Broad coalitions are expensive to maintain and may not lend themselves to effective or well-implemented strategies," said lead study author Denise Hallfors. "Broad goals do not lend themselves to effects on specific outcomes."
A spokesperson for RWJF called the study results "very disappointing."
Principal study investigator Leonard Saxe said, however, that the study was imperfect in measuring what coalitions can accomplish. He cautioned against reading too much into the study results. "The bottom line is that we do not have evidence to support the efficacy and the wide dissemination of this coalition idea and we should be much more worried about what makes them work," said Saxe.
The study said that political considerations may have hindered the effectiveness of the Fighting Back coalitions. "The foundation required coalitions to have everyone from neighborhood organizers, ministers, treatment providers, to mayors involved," said Hallfors. "Demand-reduction goals were not necessarily served well by these requirements."
The study's findings are published in the November 2002 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Commentary
In A Dubious Basis for Declaring Coalitions Don't Work, David Rosenbloom contends that the study is too flawed to justify concluding that community coalitions are ineffective in reducing alcohol and drug use.
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