The VITALS Campaign: Examining the Intended and Unintended Effects of an Anti-Binge-Drinking Campaign

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Health Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

VITALS, a health communication campaign at a private university in Texas, was designed to educate students to recognize the symptoms of alcohol poisoning and know when to get help. VITALS is an acronym for Vomiting, Incoherence, Temperature, Absence of color, Low breathing and Seizure, all symptoms of alcohol poisoning. The campaign began in August 2011 and concluded in May 2013 with the goal of educating 10 percent of the student body about the dangers of high-risk drinking. We used an online multiple cross-sectional survey design to collect self-reported drinking attitudes and behaviors from a simple random sample of 2447 students, including pre-campaign (August 2011), mid-campaign (April 2012, February and April 2013) and a post-campaign (April 2015) benchmarks. Results showed that the campaign was strongly associated with increased awareness of VITALS among students with clear differences in awareness when the campaign was active compared to before and after its implementation.

Authors

• Amiso M. George, TCU

• Wendy Macias, Texas Christian U

• Adam S. Richards, Texas Christian U

• Cornelius Pratt, Temple University