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Research Update
Alcohol Use and Pregnancy: An Important Canadian Public Health and Social Issue
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6.4 Measures Directed to Adolescents and Young Adults
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Engage Key Stakeholders While brief, motivational approaches with high-risk drinkers – a selective prevention approach – have been used with good effect at the college level in the US, the most promising universal prevention programs appear to be those that use an environmental approach that engages key stakeholders (i.e. students, health care providers, licensed establishments and the alcohol industry) in identifying and pursuing policy-level strategies (e.g. reducing access, implementing responsible beverage services) to reduce high-risk drinking.156 |
Given the prevalence of binge drinking and sexual activity among teens and young adults, and the tendency for these activities to be combined,150-152 this population is increasingly seen as an important target for universal prevention. According to the literature, younger women appear to be less at risk for having an affected child than older women. This may provide a window of protection and opportunity for education and identification of those women who will require more intense interventions. Logical subject areas within the curriculum to locate awareness-raising topics include drug/health education, personal development, and life management programs. Interactive approaches based on the Social Influence Model have been shown to be the most promising approaches to general drug education at the secondary school level.153 Topics for FASD education at this level include pregnancy planning, resisting pressure to use alcohol or engage in sexual activity, teratogenicxxv effects of alcohol, early symptoms of pregnancy, the importance of routine physical exams for sexually active female adolescents, understanding the needs of those affected by prenatal alcohol exposure, and problems confronting parents of affected children.154 Although examples of Canadian FASD-specific curricula were located,155 no studies on the effectiveness of introducing curricula in high school were found.
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