Bio
Eric C. Brown, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the University of Miami’s Department of Public Health Sciences at the Miller School of Medicine, where he is the Director of the PhD program in Prevention Science and Community Health and Principal Investigator of the Prevention Education and Research in Latin America (PERLA) group, which focuses on the adaptation, dissemination, and implementation of preventive interventions for youth alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use in Latinx and Caribbean youth populations. Dr. Brown’s specific interests center around the application of advanced research methods to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of prevention programs, strategies, and systems in the region.
Dr. Brown’s portfolio of current research studies includes a large-scale place-based youth alcohol prevention project in Zacatecas, Mexico, called Businesses That Care; the development of a registry of all preventive interventions for youth ATOD use in Latin America and the Caribbean; a multisite study of alcohol misuse and mental health problems in Puerto Rican families displaced by Hurricane Maria; and a comparison of risk and protective factors between youth and their parents in Colombia and the United States; and the adaptation and implementation of the Communities That Care prevention system in Brazil.
Dr. Brown serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) and is a member of the SPR Training Committee and liaison to the SPR International committee. Additionally, he is a member of the International Society of Substance Use Professionals, International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction the Prevention Science Methodology Group, the Brazilian Association for Research in Prevention and Health Promotion, and the National Hispanic Science. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Society for Prevention Research International Collaboration Award. He currently teaches Introduction to Implementation and Dissemination Science, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and Advanced Research Methods in the University of Miami’s Department of Public Health Sciences graduate programs.
Abstract
A Systematic Investigation of Preventive Interventions for Youth Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use in Latin America and the Caribbean
Objective: In collaboration with the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of American States (CICAD-OAS), a systemic investigation was conducted to identify preventive interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) that address youth alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use.
Methods: A scoping review of published articles that met comprehensive search criteria was conducted. The literature review was supplemented by key informant interviews with ATOD prevention experts throughout LAC.
Results: Despite many articles that met the initial search criteria, only 57 articles contained information on youth ATOD preventive interventions, with 39 unique interventions being identified. Results of interviews with 47 key informants identified an additional 38 youth ATOD preventive interventions across 29 LAC countries for a total of 77 unique interventions.
Conclusions: The growing development and diffusion of preventive interventions for youth ATOD use in LAC countries calls for a standardized approach to collect, disseminate, and use information on these interventions for informed prevention planning. This investigation is the first of its kind to comprehensively review these interventions and thus provides an important step forward towards a science-based approach to reducing youth ATOD use in the region.