ABSTRACT
As a result, some colleges have initiated risk-20 prevention efforts, such as 21st birthday card campaigns in which cards containing alcohol information, social norms, or responsible drinking messages are mailed to students with upcoming birthdays. The most widely used of these campaigns is the Be Responsible25 About Drinking (BRAD) card, which was inspired by the death of Michigan State student Bradley McCue, who died of alcohol poisoning on his 21st birthday. The BRAD card tells Bradley’s story as a cautionary tale that provides information on the symptoms of al-30 cohol poisoning and offers a reminder to celebrate responsibly. Although more than 100 institutions have distributed BRAD cards, research on its effectiveness has shown mixed results.l,5 Evaluation of other 21st birthday card campaigns has been hindered by meth-35 odological limitations, most notably a lack of adequate comparison groups.5 As a consequence, student health administrators in search of effective and empirically tested 21st birthday card campaigns have been met with limited data. Therefore, the present investigation40 aims to develop and test the efficacy of a harmreduction 21st birthday card campaign in order to reduce risky drinking. We hypothesized that students receiving a 21st birthday card will drink at more moderate levels than will those who do not receive the45 birthday card.
