Alcohol Intervention Studies in University Students. Randomised Controlled Trials of Responsible Beverage Service and High Risk Drinking.

The aim was to study implementation and efficacy of two intervention techniques for risky alcohol consumption in university students. One technique was the Responsible Beverage Service Programme modified for use in students pubs. The other was a cognitive-based education programme (10 hours) for freshman students with risky alcohol consumption that was compared with a mailed personalised drinking feedback. We used randomised controlled trials to examine the efficacy of the interventions. In order to study the influence of a respo-nsible beverage service, a training programme were given to bartenders at local student pubs (N=12) in a random way. Bartenders at six ?nations? (n=40) were trained under the Responsible Beverage Service Programme. The efficacy was assessed by measuring the breath alcohol concentration of patrons, and the social atmosphere as reported by patrons (N=1,918), in pubs with trained and untrained bartenders respectively, initially and after one and five months. In the high-risk drinking study the highest quarter of the students were randomised to one of the two interventions. The effectiveness of two intervention program-mes was tested on 177 high-risk drinking freshmen, from a sample of 695 freshmen. The efficacy was measured with the AUDIT instrument before, and annually for three years after the intervention. In order to monitor drinking patterns during the years at university, a randomly allocated low-risk group (N=182) from the total sample was added for the trajectory analysis. Both programmes could be successfully implemented in a university setting. In the bar study the implementation phase attracted only positive reactions. Measuring breath alcohol levels had no serious drawbacks. The freshmen study also received positive attention. Almost all students accepted participation (95%), indicating acceptance of the programme, both by the individuals and the organisations they belong to. The bar study showed that alcohol levels among the patrons in the intervention bars were decreased and the ?rowdy? social atmosphere reduced, compared with the patrons in the control bars after one month. These differences disappeared at the five-month assessment. The freshmen study found no significant differences between the cognitive behavioural skills training programme and the post-mailed minimal intervention in reducing alcohol consumption and related problems after one year or during a three-year follow-up period. The drinking pattern study revealed that 16 percent had a stable high-risk drinking pattern, 11 percent decreased their drinking pattern from risky to non-risky and 13 percent increased their drinking pattern from non-risky to risky. Sixty percent maintained a stable low drinking pattern during all four years at university

Alcohol Trajectories over Three Years in a Swedish Residence Hall Student Population

Although it is known that college students have a high alcohol consumption, less is known about the long-term drinking trajectories amongst college students and, in particular, students living in residence halls, known to be high-risk drinkers. Over four consecutive years, the drinking habits of 556 Swedish residence hall students were analyzed. The main instruments for measuring outcome were AUDIT (Alcohol Use Identification Disorders Test), SIP (Short Index of Problems) and eBAC (estimated Blood Alcohol Concentration). The drinking trajectories among Swedish residence hall students showed stable and decreasing drinking patterns, with age and gender being predictors of group membership

Cross-Cultural Patterns in College Student Drinking and its Consequences—A Comparison between the USA and Sweden

Aims: The aim of the study was to compare alcohol use, consequences and common risk factors between American and Swedish college students. Methods: A secondary comparative analysis from one American and two Swedish studies in college settings. Results: Swedish freshmen report higher alcohol use than US freshmen students. Swedish residence hall students report higher alcohol use than US residence hall students, but lower than American fraternity/sorority members. US students were less likely to be drinkers. Controlling for age, country moderated the relationship between family history and harmful drinking scores for women (stronger in the USA), and between expectancies and harmful drinking scores for men (stronger in Sweden), though in both cases this represented a small effect and patterns were similar overall. Conclusions: Swedish students are at higher risk for alcohol use than US students, but similar patterns between aetiological predictors and outcomes in both countries suggest that research from the USA is generalizable to Swedish students and vice versa. More research is needed to better understand unique relationships associated with age and family history

Genetical genomics of growth in a chicken model

Background: The genetics underlying body mass and growth are key to understanding a wide range of topics in biology, both evolutionary and developmental. Body mass and growth traits are affected by many genetic variants of small effect. This complicates genetic mapping of growth and body mass. Experimental intercrosses between individuals from divergent populations allows us to map naturally occurring genetic variants for selected traits, such as body mass by linkage mapping. By simultaneously measuring traits and intermediary molecular phenotypes, such as gene expression, one can use integrative genomics to search for potential causative genes. Results: In this study, we use linkage mapping approach to map growth traits (N = 471) and liver gene expression (N = 130) in an advanced intercross of wild Red Junglefowl and domestic White Leghorn layer chickens. We find 16 loci for growth traits, and 1463 loci for liver gene expression, as measured by microarrays. Of these, the genes TRAK1, OSBPL8, YEATS4, CEP55, and PIP4K2B are identified as strong candidates for growth loci in the chicken. We also show a high degree of sex-specific gene-regulation, with almost every gene expression locus exhibiting sex-interactions. Finally, several trans-regulatory hotspots were found, one of which coincides with a major growth locus. Conclusions: These findings not only serve to identify several strong candidates affecting growth, but also show how sex-specificity and local gene-regulation affect growth regulation in the chicken.Funding Agencies|Carl Tryggers Stiftelse; Swedish Research Council (VR); Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS); Linkoping University Neuro-network; European Research Council [GENEWELL 322206]</p

Sequence variation, evolutionary constraint, and selection at the CD163 gene in pigs

Abstract Background In this work, we investigated sequence variation, evolutionary constraint, and selection at the CD163 gene in pigs. A functional CD163 protein is required for infection by porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, which is a serious pathogen with major impacts on pig production. Results We used targeted pooled sequencing of the exons of CD163 to detect sequence variants in 35,000 pigs of diverse genetic backgrounds and to search for potential stop-gain and frameshift indel variants. Then, we used whole-genome sequence data from three pig lines to calculate: a variant intolerance score that measures the tolerance of genes to protein coding variation; an estimate of selection on protein-coding variation over evolutionary time; and haplotype diversity statistics to detect recent selective sweeps during breeding. Conclusions Using a deep survey of sequence variation in the CD163 gene in domestic pigs, we found no potential knockout variants. The CD163 gene was moderately intolerant to variation and showed evidence of positive selection in the pig lineage, but no evidence of recent selective sweeps during breeding

Reply. Cunningham concerning `Regression to the mean: What does it mean?’

We agree that our interpretation of our results regarding a cognitive behaviour alcohol programme compared with post-mailed minimal intervention (Johnsson and Berglund, 2006) is conservative in that we did not include the interpretations suggested by Cunningham (2006). This particularly applies to the possibility that both interventions were effective in reducing drinking. The design we used was intended to compare a rather extensive intervention with a minimal intervention in order to compare differences in efficacy. Based on the lack of differences, we concluded that the result could be caused by regression to the mean. We would certainly like to study an untreated control group in order to see whether the positive effects of both inter-ventions could be related to the interventions themselves, o

Comparison between a cognitive behavioural alcohol programme and post-mailed minimal intervention in high-risk drinking university freshmen: results from a randomized controlled trial.

Aim: Examine the effect of a 10 h intervention programme compared with post-mailed minimal intervention (PMMI) given to high-risk alcohol-drinking university freshmen in a random design. Method: In total 693 freshmen at the Lund Institute of Technology, Lund University, Sweden were included in the study. A cognitive behavioural alcohol program (CBAP) or PMMI was given to high-risk drinking freshmen (n = 177) in a randomized design. A 10-item screening instrument, Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), was used before and 1 year after the intervention programmes were given. Results: There were no significant differences between the CBAP and the PMMI groups. Both groups declined their AUDIT scores with -1.7 [CI 95% -2.6, -0.7] and -2.7 [CI 95% -3.6, -1.7], respectively which could be explained by effects of regression to the mean. Conclusion: No significant differences between the groups were found

Do Responsible Beverage Service Programs Reduce Breath Alcohol Concentration Among Patrons: A Five-Month Follow-up of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Aims: To examine whether the decrease in the mean breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) and the rowdy social atmosphere reported after one month remained stable in the five-month assessment. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: University bars. Participants: The five-month assessment was based on 596 students visiting student bars during ordinary pub evenings. Intervention: Bartenders (n = 40) in 6 of 12 bars on a university campus underwent training programs in a randomized pattern. Bartenders in control bars did not participate in the program. Measurements: The BrAC and reported social atmosphere in a five-month follow-up assessment. Findings: All measurements (BrAC, rowdy, cozy, and high social atmosphere) showed that time had a significant decreasing effect. The positive effects on BrAC and rowdy atmosphere shown in the one-month follow-up were no longer evident after five months. Conclusion: The positive results after one month were not stable after five months. The study's limitations are noted