William DeJong

Boston University | BU · Department of Community Health Sciences

Firearm violence is a pressing public health issue in the United States and becoming increasingly so worldwide. This concern has prompted researchers to examine the prevalence of such violence in media entertainment. Japanese manga have a large youth readership in the U.S., yet research on their depictions of firearms is presently lacking. We rando...

The purpose of this study is to (a) outline the formative steps that universities can follow to determine if a media campaign based on the social norms approach (SNA) is a viable method for increasing COVID-19 prevention behaviors among their students, (b) present formative research data collected at a large public land-grant university in the U.S....

Background Beginning in 2016, the Anheuser-Busch InBev Foundation (ABIF) provided funding to six pilot cities to implement evidence-based interventions to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and its deleterious consequences such as alcohol-impaired driving. The cities receiving funding are Alexandra Township in Johannesburg, South Africa; Brasilia, B...

Background: College student drinking in on-premises establishments has been associated with heavy alcohol consumption and a range of problems including assault, fighting, risky sex, and drinking and driving. Although more strictly enforcing overservice laws might reduce heavy drinking in on-premises establishments, law enforcement agencies have fe...

Objective: Studies assessing awareness and knowledge of alcohol-attributable causes of death and disease have been conducted across the globe to develop and evaluate public information campaigns to increase alcohol health literacy. Because of variation in measurement, the results of these studies cannot be easily compared to determine relative rat...

We report the results of a quasi-experimental evaluation of a mystery shopper intervention in Zacatecas and Guadalupe, Mexico. Underage youth attempted to purchase beer at 50 Modelorama stores and 32 Oxxo stores (intervention groups), and at 19 comparison convenience stores in March, July, and August 2018. After each attempt, intervention store ope...

Background: Recently increased access to cannabis products in the United States has been associated with increased rates of driving after cannabis use. Although numerous studies indicate that cannabis impairs psychomotor and neurocognitive functions that can affect driving ability, the determination of cannabis-impaired driving risk is complicated...

Introduction: Studies have shown that approximately half of arrested intoxicated drivers had their last alcoholic drink at a licensed bar or restaurant. Current efforts to prevent intoxicated patrons from leaving licensed establishments and driving home have been only partially successful. Since a high proportion of drinkers drive to their drinkin...

The purpose of the Moderate Alcohol and Cardiovascular Health Trial (MACH15) was “to assess the cardiometabolic effects of one alcoholic drink daily over an average of six years among adults 50 years or older at high risk for cardiovascular outcomes.”¹ The National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated the study in June 2018. In this editorial, I r...

Japanese manga, which present dramatic and imaginative stories in comic book form, have a growing readership in Asia, Europe, and North America. We investigated depictions of tobacco and alcohol use in a sample of contemporary shōnen manga, which have a primary readership of males ages 8–18, but also appeal to young females and adults. Large number...

Background: Older age groups are less likely than their younger counterparts to be regularly active and women are even less active. Ecological models suggest that multiple levels of influence with each level influencing the next level impacts physical activity behaviors. Methods: Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to determine factors w...

Introduction and Aims Clerks and servers at alcohol establishments often fail to verify age. Using mystery shoppers to provide performance feedback is one approach to improving age verification. Few controlled studies have evaluated mystery shop interventions. This paper reports on a cluster randomised cross‐over trial of a mystery shop interventio...

Objective: Past epidemiological studies have revealed that 18- to 25-year-olds have the highest rate of Salvia divinorum (salvia) use. This study examines predictors of salvia use among a large national sample of incoming first-year college students attending 144 academic institutions.Method: Each institution instructed their entering first-year st...

Campus sexual assault is a long-standing challenge and continues to be a severe problem for American higher education. The present study examines the short-term impact of a widely utilized sexual violence prevention course for matriculating college students as a population-level prevention approach. The course focuses on correcting misperceptions o...

Background In population studies, vaping is often treated as a dichotomous exposure (present/absent) without consideration of specific vaping devices and materials being used. A survey instrument is needed to record specific vaping devices and materials. Methods We developed a database of 613 vaping device models and 3196 vaping liquid products, i...

Master of Public Health (MPH) courses can strengthen competency-based education by having students work on real-world problems in collaboration with public health agencies. This article describes practice-based teaching (PBT) and illustrates its importance for coursework in intervention planning and health communications. With a PBT course, communi...

Background: Youth exposure to alcohol marketing has been shown to be an important contributor to the problem of underage drinking in the U.S. More work is needed on identifying and minimizing content with particular appeal to youth. Design and Methods: We tested the association between the youth-appeal of marketing content of televised alcohol adv...

In 2012, Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL), a multi-level health systems initiative, launched in Kalomo District, Zambia, to address persistent challenges in reducing maternal mortality. We assessed the impact of the programme from 2012 to 2013 using a quasi-experimental study with both household- and health facility-level data collected before an...

Background: This study examined whether alcohol brands more popular among youth are more likely to have aired television advertisements that violated the alcohol industry's voluntary code by including youth-appealing content. Methods: We obtained a complete list of 288 brand-specific beer advertisements broadcast during the National Collegiate A...

Background: Many transgender college students struggle with identity formation and other emotional, social, and developmental challenges associated with emerging adulthood. A potential maladaptive coping strategy employed by such students is heavy drinking. Prior literature has suggested greater consumption and negative alcohol-related consequence...

Despite the risk it poses to children’s mental and physical health, approval and use of corporal punishment (CP) remains high in the United States. Informed by the Theory of Planned Behavior, we examined potential predictors of attitudes supportive of CP while assessing the moderating effects of parents’ (N = 500) chosen primary professional source...

Objectives: We explored the impact of changes to school lunch on overall food choices in a sample of middle school children in the United States (US). Methods: The IMOVE program provides healthy school lunch meals that are offered alongside standard school lunch meals. Students from one intervention (N = 162) and one comparison (N = 110) school par...

Underage drinking is a serious public health problem in the United States, and youth exposure to alcohol advertising has been indicated as a possible contributing factor. Although a number of studies have identified advertising content features that youth find appealing, a key limitation of this research is the absence of a broader tool to examine...

Social norms affect human behavior, and underage drinking is no exception. Using the theory of normative social behavior, this study tested the proposition that the association between perceptions about the prevalence of drinking (descriptive norms) and underage drinking is strengthened when perceived pressures to conform (injunctive norms) and bel...

Objective: Although studies demonstrate that exposure to brand-specific alcohol advertising is associated with an increased likelihood of youth consuming particular brands, the relationship between quantity of brand-specific advertising exposure and quantity of brand-specific consumption has not been firmly established. Method: Using the Alcohol...

Objective: This study tested whether perceived parental approval of high-risk drinking is directly linked to alcohol-related outcomes or whether the link between perceived parental approval and these outcomes is mediated by perceived friends' approval of high-risk drinking. Method: In fall 2009, 1,797 incoming first-year college students (49.7%...

Aims: The aims of this study were to (a) identify classes of first-year college students based on the patterns of negative alcohol-related consequences they experienced just before entering college, and (b) determine whether specific covariates were associated with class membership. Methods: Incoming freshmen from 148 colleges and universities (...

Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer, and incidence rates have been rising steadily for decades. Early detection improves prognosis, but even though most melanomas are visible to the naked eye, skin self-examination (SSE) rates are low, especially among young adults. These low SSE rates are troubling since melanoma is one of the most com...

Background: Marketing is increasingly recognized as a potentially important contributor to youth drinking, yet few studies have examined the relationship between advertising exposure and alcohol consumption among underage youth at the brand level. Objectives: To examine the relationship between brand-specific exposure to alcohol advertising amon...

Aim: Bhutan is a low-middle income country that, like many others, experiences significant alcohol-related harm and low compliance with laws restricting availability and promotion. This study assessed changes in compliance of alcohol outlets with sales restrictions following a multi-sector programme aimed at improving this. Design: Pre-post desi...

Few colleges have made the prevention of alcohol-related injuries and deaths an institutional priority, and even fewer have implemented prevention strategies with a solid evidentiary base. We look to presidents to provide leadership on this issue, but those who do are atypical. Boards of trustees should step in by: asserting that student wellness b...

Background: Alcohol research focused on underage drinkers has not comprehensively assessed the landscape of brand-level drinking behaviors among youth. This information is needed to profile youth alcohol use accurately, explore its antecedents, and develop appropriate interventions. Methods: We collected national data on the alcohol brand-level...

Modifying the school food environment is on the national agenda as one strategy to improve the nutritional quality of children's diets. Because few environmental-level interventions have been rigorously evaluated, the evidence base to inform programs and policies is limited. Of concern is the impact that changes to cafeteria offerings will have on...

No previous study has determined whether there are differences in the youth appeal of alcohol advertisements for popular versus unpopular brands among underage drinkers. This paper provides a systematic investigation of the differential appeal of brand-level alcohol advertisements among underage youth and young adults in the U.S. We examined three...

First-year college students are at particular risk for problem drinking, especially around the time when they first begin college. The purpose of this study was to examine whether self-perception of adulthood (SPOA) was prospectively associated with drinking behaviors, the use of different types of protective behavioral strategies (PBS), and negati...

Objectives: We examined associations between consumption of different types of flavored alcoholic beverages (FABs) and risky drinking and drinking-related harms among underage drinkers. Methods: For the Alcohol Brand Research among Underage Youth study, we applied multivariable logistic regression analyses to data from underage drinkers (n = 103...

This study investigated whether underage drinkers with varied media use patterns differentially consume popular brands of alcohol. A survey was conducted with a national online panel of 1,032 underage youth 13-20 years of age who had consumed at least 1 drink in the past 30 days. A latent class analysis identified four distinct media use patterns....

Background: A significant body of research has demonstrated an association between adolescent alcohol consumption and subsequent fights and injuries. To date, however, no research has identified which brands are associated with alcohol-related fights and injuries among underage drinkers. Objectives: We aimed to: (1) report the prevalence of alco...

Background: Our study team recently launched a novel line of research exploring the intersection of branding and underage drinking in the United States. Until now, alcohol research among adolescents had not comprehensively assessed the role of brand-specific marketing exposure and consumption. As alcohol marketing and advertising occurs at the bran...

We examined the influence of price on alcohol brand choice among underage youth. Using a national sample of 1,032 youth, ages 13-20, recruited from a national Internet panel in 2011-2012, we compared differences in mean prices between popular and unpopular brands, examined the association of price and brand popularity using logistic regression, and...

Aims: We aimed to describe the sources from which youth in the USA commonly obtain alcohol, their role in selecting the brands they drink and the relationship of these variables to their indicated alcohol brand preferences. Methods: We recruited 1031 underage drinkers in the age range of 13-20 through an internet panel managed by Knowledge Netwo...

Background: Although valuable, national opinion surveys on alcohol policy may be less informative for policy development at the local level. Using samples of adult residents in 2 college communities, the present study: (1) measured public support for local alcohol control policies to stem underage drinking and alcohol overservice in on-premise out...

Aim: No previous national study has reported the prevalence of alcohol brand consumption among underage youth by demographic characteristics. The aim of this study was to determine the alcohol brand preferences among underage drinkers in different demographic categories. Method: We administered an online survey to a national sample of 1,031 unde...

Background: Adolescent alcohol consumption remains common and is associated with many negative health outcomes. Unfortunately, common alcohol surveillance methods often underestimate consumption. Improved alcohol use measures are needed to characterize the landscape of youth drinking. Objectives: We aimed to compare a standard quantity-frequency...

Objective: Recently published research has identified the alcohol brands most frequently consumed by underage youth. The present study examines alcohol magazine advertising in 2011 to report age- and sex-specific exposure to advertisements for these brands in contrast with other magazine advertising brands less popular with youth. Method: We lic...

We investigated the population-level relationship between exposure to brand-specific advertising and brand-specific alcohol use among US youth. We conducted an internet survey of a national sample of 1031 youth, ages 13-20, who had consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. We ascertained all of the alcohol brands respondents consumed in the past 30 day...

Background and objectives: Binge drinking is a common and risky pattern of alcohol consumption among youth; beverage and brand-specific consumption during binge drinking is poorly understood. The objective was to characterize beverage- and brand-specific consumption associated with binge drinking among underage youth in the U.S. Methods: An inte...

Objective: In 2006, the nonprofit organization Choose Responsibility called for repealing the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which had led all 50 states to establish a minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21 years, and allowing the states to lower their MLDA to 18 years. Two years later, the organization assembled a small group of college...

The purpose of this study was to identify reasons why youth choose to drink specific brands of alcohol and to determine if these reasons are associated with problem drinking patterns and outcomes. We conducted an Internet survey of 1,031 youth aged 13-20 years who reported drinking within the past 30 days. Of these, 541 youth who reported having a...

Background: The alcohol brand preferences of US underage drinkers have recently been identified, but it is not known whether youth are simply mimicking adult brand choices or whether other factors are impacting their preferences. This study is the first to compare the alcohol brand preferences of underage drinkers and adults. Methods: The author...

Background: Although several studies have identified flavored alcoholic beverages (FABs) as being popular among underage drinkers, no previous study has ascertained the prevalence of brand-specific FAB consumption among a national sample of underage youth. Objectives: To ascertain the brand-specific consumption prevalence and consumption share o...

Increased availability of competitive foods (a la carte snack foods) during the school day parallels the rise in childhood obesity. Improvements in the school food environment are needed, though the impact on school lunch participation is unclear. This study assessed IMOVE, a school-based healthy eating initiative that provides access to alternativ...

The authors investigated possible mediating effects of psychosocial variables (perceived drinking norms, positive and negative alcohol expectancies, personal approval of alcohol use, protective behavioral strategies) targeted by an online alcohol education course (AlcoholEdu for College) as part of a 30-campus randomized trial with 2,400 first-year...

ABSTRACT The authors investigated the relationship between state excise taxes and liquor prices in 8 states, using 2012 data for 45 brands. The authors made 6042 price observations among 177 liquor stores with online prices. Using a hierarchical model, the authors examined the relationship between excise taxes and product prices. State excise taxes...

Whether patterns of physical activity in different communities can be attributed to the built environment or instead reflect self-selection is not well understood. The objective of this study was to examine neighborhood preferences and behavior-specific physical activity among residents who moved to a new urbanist-designed community. We used data f...

This study examined whether recent alcohol-related consequences affect intentions to use protective drinking strategies. Responses were collected from incoming college freshmen (N = 84,367) at 279 U.S. colleges and universities. Plans to limit future drinking were significantly lower among students who were male, younger, White, or were in or inten...

Autoregressive integrated moving averages (ARIMA) is a powerful analytic tool for conducting interrupted time-series analysis, yet it is rarely used in studies of public health campaigns or programs. This study demonstrated the use of ARIMA to assess AlcoholEdu for College, an online alcohol education course for first-year students, and other healt...

Background: Little is known about brand-specific alcohol consumption among underage youth, as existing information is collected at the level of alcoholic beverage type. This study identifies the alcohol brands consumed by a nationally representative sample of underage youth in the United States. Methods: We obtained a national sample of 1,032 un...

Low alcohol prices are a potent risk factor for excessive drinking, underage drinking, and adverse alcohol-attributable outcomes. Presently, there is little reported information on alcohol prices in the U.S., in particular as it relates to the costs of potentially beneficial amounts of alcohol. To determine the minimum financial outlay necessary to...

Background: Although the Institute of Medicine has called for national surveys to measure the brands of alcohol that youth consume, to date there has been no research reporting national data on brand-specific alcohol consumption among youth. Understanding the patterns in youth alcohol brand use by age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status would h...

Background/Purpose: We examined reports of alcohol and marijuana use and related driving behaviors among high school youth in Boston's MetroWest region. Significance: Understanding patterns in risky driving behaviors related to substance use among youth is important in informing education and prevention efforts of school-based health educators an...

Aims: This study aims to compare the average price of liquor in the United States between retail alcohol outlets in states that have a monopoly ('control' states) with those that do not ('licence' states). Design: A cross-sectional study of brand-specific alcohol prices in the United States. Setting: We determined the average prices in Februar...

There are no existing data on alcoholic beverage prices and ethanol (EtOH) content at the level of alcohol brand. A comprehensive understanding of alcohol prices and EtOH content at the brand level is essential for the development of effective public policy to reduce alcohol use among underage youth. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively...

Background: The ability to design or reconfigure communities to be more supportive of physical activity has broad public health implications. Assessing the context and locations of specific behaviors will lead to a better understanding of how neighborhood attributes influence overall physical activity. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was used...

This study is the first investigation to explore the alcohol brand preferences of underage youth via a national survey. The authors conducted a pilot study of a new, Internet-based alcohol brand survey with 108 youth aged 16 to 20 years who were recruited from an existing panel and had consumed alcohol in the past month. The authors ascertained res...

AlcoholEdu® for College and other computer-based education programs have been developed to reduce alcohol use and related problems among students. This study investigated whether the failure of incoming first-year students to complete AlcoholEdu predicts future high-risk drinking that requires medical attention. A review of clinical records kept by...

This study examined patterns and correlates of protective drinking behaviors among incoming first-year college students. Incoming first-year students (n=76,882) from 258 colleges across the U.S. provided baseline data on demographics, drinking practices, and protective behaviors as part of a web-based alcohol education program. Across the several c...

Mystery shops involving attempted tobacco purchases by young buyers have been implemented in order to monitor retail stores' performance in refusing underage sales. Anecdotal evidence suggests that mystery shop visits with immediate feedback to store personnel can improve age verification. This study investigated the effect of monthly and twice-mon...

Although we know a great deal about the percentage of youth who drink alcohol, we know very little about the specific brands they choose to drink. This information gap needs to be addressed if public health officials are to develop more effective interventions. Unfortunately, there are no national youth surveys that collect data on alcohol brand co...

One way that underage drinkers procure alcohol is by using a fake ID. This study examined demographic characteristics and alcohol-related problems associated with fake ID ownership among incoming first-year college students. We examined baseline data collected as part of a web-based alcohol education program that had been completed by a large, cros...

Evaluations of social norms marketing campaigns to reduce college student drinking have produced conflicting results. This study examines whether the effectiveness of such campaigns may be moderated by on-premise alcohol outlet density in the surrounding community. Multilevel analyses were conducted of student survey responses (N= 19,838) from 32 U...

Little is known about how the reasons that college student drinkers and abstainers have for choosing not to drink might differ. The present study examined this issue among a sample of 2,500 U.S. college students from 18 colleges and universities. Abstainers endorsed significantly more reasons for not drinking than drinkers, and among drinkers, ligh...

Despite the fact that corporal punishment (CP) is a significant risk factor for increased aggression in children, child physical abuse victimization, and other poor outcomes, approval of CP remains high in the United States. Having a positive attitude toward CP use is a strong and malleable predictor of CP use and, therefore, is an important potent...

Introduction: Although the Institute of Medicine has called for national surveys to measure the brands of alcohol that youths consume, to date there has been no research reporting national data on brand-specific alcohol consumption among youths. Methods: We piloted tested a survey of youth alcohol brand use among a sample of 100 youths ages 16-20 r...

The US government's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) launched its new antidrug media campaign in July 1998. The campaign is likely to increase awareness of the youth drug problem, but shortcomings in the campaign's early implementation raise questions about its potential for changing behavior. Shortcomings include: a) The first wave o...

In reviewing the anti-drug media campaign organized by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), we expressed concern about both its strategic direction and execution (Journal of Health Communication, 1999, 4:2 155-160). The response from ONDCP's director, General Barry R. McCaffrey, still leaves us concerned about the campaign's chances...

A randomized control trial was conducted at a midsized private university in the Northeast to evaluate the short-term impact of AlcoholEdu for College 8.0, an online alcohol course for first-year students. In September 2007, 1,620 matriculated first-year students were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or an assessment-only control group...

Most health literacy research to date has assessed health literacy using either general reading tests or text-based appraisals of reading and numeracy skills, yet the definition of health literacy includes domains beyond reading ability. Effective oral communication between doctor and patient is an important component of health literacy, but only r...

Studies have documented that members of college fraternities and sororities (i.e., Greeks) drink more heavily and experience more alcohol-related consequences than other students. Few studies have examined the role of Greek leaders in the socialization of Greek members. The present study investigated how alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors amon...

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships among campus violence, student drinking levels, and the physical availability of alcohol at off-campus outlets in a multisite design. An ecological analysis of on-campus violence was conducted at 32 U.S. colleges. Dependent variables included campus-reported rates of rape, robbery, assault,...

Alcohol-impaired driving continues to be a major public health concern, particularly among college students. The current study examined whether sociodemographic, behavioral, and cognitive variables predicted alcohol-impaired driving in a sample of college students. Data were collected via telephone interviews from a random sample of undergraduates,...