A scoping review of risk behaviour interventions in young men

Abstract

BackgroundYoung adult males commonly engage in risky behaviours placing them at risk of acute and chronic health conditions. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide an overview of existing literature, describing the interventions targeting risk behaviours in young adult males.MethodsA search of seven electronic databases, grey literature and relevant journals reported in English language until May 2013 was conducted. All interventions that promoted healthy behaviours or reductions in risky behaviours to treat or prevent an associated health issue(s) in young adult males (17-35 years) in upper-middle and high-income countries were included. For inclusion the appropriate age range had to be reported and the sample had to be young adult male participants only or the outcomes reported with stratification by age and/or sex to include young adult males. Risk behaviours included: physical inactivity, poor diet, alcohol use, tobacco smoking, recreational drug use, unsafe sexual behaviours, tanning/sun exposure, violence, unsafe vehicle driving, gambling and self-harm.ResultsThe search strategy identified 16,739 unique citations and the full-text of 1149 studies were retrieved and screened with 100 included studies focussed on: physical inactivity (27%), alcohol use (25%), unsafe sexual behaviour (21%), poor diet (5%), unsafe vehicle driving (5%), tobacco smoking (4%), recreational drug use (2%), and tanning/sun exposure (1%) with no relevant studies targeting violence, gambling or self-harm. Also 10% of the studies targeted multiple risk behaviours. The most common study design was randomized controlled trials (62%). Face-to-face was the most common form of intervention delivery (71%) and the majority were conducted in university/college settings (46%). There were 46 studies (46%) that included young adult male participants only, the remaining studies reported outcomes stratified by age and/or sex.ConclusionRisk behaviours in young men have been targeted to some extent, but the amount of research varies across risk behaviours. There is a need for more targeted and tailored interventions that seek to promote healthy behaviours or decrease risky behaviours in young men.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-957) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the ‘HEYMAN’ healthy lifestyle program for young men: a pilot randomised controlled trial

“…Formative research with young men was conducted to identify perceived motivators and barriers for healthy eating and physical activity [17, 35] and to identify their preferences for intervention content and delivery medium [36]. In addition, the program was informed by best practice guidelines for diet [37] and physical activity [38], theoretical guidelines from an integrated framework of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) [39] and Self Determination Theory (SDT) [40], and evidence from effective health-related interventions in this population [23, 24]. See Additional file 1 for a full list of HEYMAN components and their alignment with the participatory responses from the formative work and with behaviours change strategies from SCT and/or SDT.…”

“…Difficulties associated with recruitment and retention may explain why young men are under-represented in health programs and why there is a lack of evidence to guide development of effective health-related interventions for young men [23, 24]. The current evidence base is predominantly made up of health-related interventions that include both sexes [23] and all ages [25, 26], but the heterogeneity in psychological, social, and physical differences between sexes and age groups, highlight the need for gender and age-specific health research and behavioural programs [27].…”

“…The current evidence base is predominantly made up of health-related interventions that include both sexes [23] and all ages [25, 26], but the heterogeneity in psychological, social, and physical differences between sexes and age groups, highlight the need for gender and age-specific health research and behavioural programs [27]. A recent systematic review of SNAPO (Smoking, Nutrition, Alcohol, Physical activity or Obesity) interventions in exclusively young men [24] found few interventions targeting young men ( n  = 10) and over half (6 out of 10) demonstrated significant positive short-term intervention effects.…”

“…In particular, process evaluation results can provide valuable insights into why an intervention fails or has unexpected outcomes or unintended consequences, or why a successful intervention works and how it can be optimised for a future RCT [29]. Understanding these aspects can help to overcome the difficulties apparent with reaching and retaining young men [23]. Therefore, the aims of the current study were to:

Evaluate the feasibility of a targeted healthy lifestyle program for young adult men aged 18–25 years.

Estimate the treatment effect of HEYMAN on improving objective physical activity levels (steps/day), diet quality and subjective well-being (primary outcomes in subsequent RCT) and other lifestyle, psychological, anthropometric and physiological measures (secondary outcomes in the subsequent RCT).

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Parental drinking and adverse outcomes in children: A scoping review of cohort studies

“…Although there are systematic reviews in related areas [23,24], neither has had a primary focus on the breadth of consequences for children, and both have more precise foci and mechanistic orientations. Literature searches in MedLine and Google Scholar (October 2014) identified some scoping reviews related to alcohol use [25,26], but none were found on parental drinking's possible harmful effects. This scoping review thus offers the first summary of available evidence from cohort studies of parental drinking and child outcome, both in terms of study characteristics and principal findings.…”