[Student health representatives at university: Objectives, modalities, and evaluation]. / Les Étudiants Relais Santé à l'université : objectifs, modalités d'action et d'évaluation.

OBJECTIVES: The development of "Student Health Representatives" (ERS), based on the efficiency of prevention strategies among peers, is encouraged by University Health Services (SSU). And yet, the heterogeneity of the local contexts, as well as the lack of a national referential incites reflections as to the stakes, the key factors, and limits of these schemes. In this way, a national training day was organized to respond to the following objectives: What objective and what framework for student health representatives? Which student health representatives and what actions? What type of evaluation for student health representatives? METHOD: 61 university health service professionals (SSU) (32 nurses, 22 doctors, and 7 prevention specialists), representing 29 university health services met and worked on the question of student health representatives.This work on the ERS followed a process of formalized consensus, based on the Glaser technique (Fink 1984). Two workshops with 30 and 31 people were organized, each divided into three groups (six in total). The distribution of each group was decided beforehand, so that there were no more than two members of the same university health service. Each group worked on the following three points: the role of the ERS, student eligibility and definition of their role, and the evaluation of the ERS.A synthesis was drafted after this work of reflection. RESULTS: An analysis with proposed actions was produced for each of the themes. CONCLUSION: Even though the ERS must be reassessed and harmonized at the national level, the objectives, the framework, the themes, and the preventive action must respond to local health prerogatives, adapted to each university health policy.

Les Étudiants Relais Santé à l'université : objectifs, modalités d'action et d'évaluation.

OBJECTIVES: The development of "Student Health Representatives" (ERS), based on the efficiency of prevention strategies among peers, is encouraged by University Health Services (SSU). And yet, the heterogeneity of the local contexts, as well as the lack of a national referential incites reflections as to the stakes, the key factors, and limits of these schemes. In this way, a national training day was organized to respond to the following objectives: What objective and what framework for student health representatives? Which student health representatives and what actions? What type of evaluation for student health representatives? METHOD: 61 university health service professionals (SSU) (32 nurses, 22 doctors, and 7 prevention specialists), representing 29 university health services met and worked on the question of student health representatives.This work on the ERS followed a process of formalized consensus, based on the Glaser technique (Fink 1984). Two workshops with 30 and 31 people were organized, each divided into three groups (six in total). The distribution of each group was decided beforehand, so that there were no more than two members of the same university health service. Each group worked on the following three points: the role of the ERS, student eligibility and definition of their role, and the evaluation of the ERS.A synthesis was drafted after this work of reflection. RESULTS: An analysis with proposed actions was produced for each of the themes. CONCLUSION: Even though the ERS must be reassessed and harmonized at the national level, the objectives, the framework, the themes, and the preventive action must respond to local health prerogatives, adapted to each university health policy.

Preventing Alcohol Abuse Through Social Networking Sites: A First Assessment of a Two-Year Ecological Approach.

BACKGROUND: Prevention strategies to reduce alcohol use/consumption among young people are crucial to reducing alcohol-related deaths and preventing disease. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of a social networking site (SNS) alcohol prevention program targeted toward young people. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that the program would diminish the relation made by participants between alcohol and festive moments, and would result in a reduction of their declared consumption of alcohol at festive moments during the program. We also explored the interaction with the prevention program that was the most efficient. METHODS: The prevention program took the form of 3 lotteries over 2 years. The participants periodically received prevention messages, particularly on alcohol and festive moments (eg, videos on Facebook and short message service [SMS] text messages on their mobile phones). For the 3 periods, the participants had to answer questions exploring the level of their belief that alcohol consumption and festive moments are highly associated. A control group that did not participate in the prevention program was asked the same questions over the same number of days for the first 2 periods. During the second period, the participants were asked to answer questions about their alcohol consumption during parties. During the third period, we explored the interaction with the prevention program on the reduction of their belief that alcohol consumption and festive moments are associated. RESULTS: A total of 651 participants (age: mean 22.24, SD 4.10 years; women: n=430) during the first period, 301 participants (age: mean 21.27, SD 3.07 years; women n=199) during the second period, and 305 (age: mean 22.41, SD 4.65 years; women: n=190) during the third period correctly completed the survey. For the control group, 69 students completed the survey during the first period (age: mean 18.93, SD 1.14 years; women: n=59) and 50 during the second (age: mean 20.78, SD 1.94 years; women: n=45). We observed a significant reduction in the association of alcohol with festive moments in the participants over the 2 years (period 1: z=-4.80, P<.001; period 2: z=-2.11, P=.04; period 3: z=-2.30; P=.02), but not in the controls. We also observed a reduction in the number of glasses consumed during festive moments for the participants (z=-2.36, P=.02), but not for the controls during the second period. The third period showed that only the number of days since registration in the program had an impact on the reduction of the association of festive moments and alcohol consumption (t21=3.186, P=.005). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that the SNS prevention program is promising in preventing the association of alcohol with festive moments and, more generally, in impacting social norms.