Long-term effectiveness of a gambling intervention program among children in central Illinois

Youth gambling is an increasing concern. As a response, the “Don’t Gamble Away our Future (DGAOF)” program has been implemented among children in central Illinois. We aim to assess the long-term effectiveness of this school-based youth gambling prevention program in Illinois using the data from 2005 to 2009. The intervention included interactive PowerPoint presentations and prevention materials in parent packets. Students aged 8 to 18 years were eligible to participate in the intervention and the questionnaire pre-post knowledge tests (total score 0–9). Students in 5th grade and above also received a gambling behavior screen test using the Modified South Oaks Gambling Screening for Teens (MSOGST) for identifying probable gamblers. Multivariable generalized mixed models were conducted to detect the effects of a 5-year youth gambling prevention program as controlling potential confounders. A total of 16,262 and 16,421 students completed pre-post tests and MSOGST tests, respectively. Of 16,262, half were female, the majority (76.1%) were from senior high school, and 21.3% received the intervention at least twice. The median gap between interventions was 368 days. Students receiving multiple interventions had higher scores on the pre-test as compared to those receiving a single intervention (P<0.001 for all comparisons among groups), and they demonstrated an increasing trend of awareness about gambling over time (P<0.001 for multiple interventions; P = 0.538 for single intervention). The prevalence of problem gambling had decreased among students receiving the intervention twice as compared to receiving the intervention once (7.9% versus 9.4%; OR = 0.89, 95% CL: 0.82–0.97). However, this effect was not confirmed among students receiving the intervention three or more times. In conclusion, the DGAOF program has demonstrated a positive long-term impact on increasing gambling knowledge and partially reducing pathological gamblers through direct training. It suggests that multiple repeated interventions are important for youth gambling prevention.