Health Evidence hosted a 60 minute webinar examining the effectiveness of peer-led interventions in preventing tobacco, alcohol and/or drug use among young people. Click here to access the slides: http://ow.ly/f0vI306clCH.

Georgie MacArthur, National Institute of Health Research Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, led the session and presented findings from her latest systematic review:

MacArthur G.J., Harrison S., Caldwell D.M., Hickman M., & Campbell R. (2016).Peer-led interventions to prevent tobacco, alcohol and/or drug use among young people aged 11-21 years: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Addiction, 111(3), 391-407.

Tobacco, alcohol, cannabis and other illicit drug use can have negative consequences on the health of young people. This review and meta-analysis assessed and quantified the effectiveness of peer-led interventions on tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use among young people. Seventeen randomized control trials were included and 10 studies were pooled for meta-analysis. Peer-led interventions reduced odds of smoking (OR=0.78, 95% CI 0.62 – 0.99, p=0.040) and alcohol use (OR=0.80, 95% CI 0.65 – 0.99, p=0.034) among young people, compared to controls. This webinar provided an overview of the effectiveness of peer-led interventions among young people aged 11-21 years.