Examining How Dosage of Intervention Components from the Sacramento Neighborhood Alcohol Prevention Project Affect Child Abuse and Neglect.

Alcohol environmental intervention efforts have shown mixed results in reducing child abuse and neglect. In this study, we examine how the dosage of specific intervention components of the Sacramento Neighborhood Alcohol Prevention Project (SNAPP) may differentially affect child abuse outcomes. SNAPP used a quasi-experimental phased intervention design to reduce alcohol-related problems among 15-29-year-olds in two economically, racially, and ethnically diverse neighborhoods in Sacramento, California. Study activities were conducted from 1999 through 2003. The intervention occurred in 37 Census block groups (21 block groups in the South and 16 in the North) compared to 289 block groups in the At-Large comparison area. Our child abuse outcomes include substantiations of child abuse and neglect and total and alcohol-related foster care entries. Data on child abuse outcomes were obtained from the Sacramento County Department of Children and Family Services and analyzed using conditionally autoregressive spatio-temporal Bayesian analyses. Enforcement of intoxicated patron and on-premise alcohol outlet compliance checks were related to large reductions in all three outcomes in the North intervention area, 33.4% for substantiations, 44.8% for total foster care entries, and 68.4% for alcohol-related foster care entries. However, these activities were not implemented in the South area. Community awareness activities appear to increase total and alcohol-related foster care entries in the South, but reduce substantiations and total foster care entries in the North. Compliance of on-premise outlets may be an effective intervention component to reduce child abuse and neglect; however, these results need replication. Further, despite the dosage of intervention components that reduced substantiations, the overall effect of the SNAPP intervention did not reduce this outcome.