Overview
The Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) was first trialed in 1990 at the University of Washington for college students around 18 to 24 years old. Within trials, it has repeatedly shown to be an effective way to screen for alcohol use disorders and suggest interventions, but institutions vary widely in how they deliver it, including through groups, telehealth, written feedback, and electronic portals. It’s considered a form of Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) [^0]
In 2021, researchers at the University of Washington iterated on BASICS with the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for Community College Students (BASICCS), recognizing that the needs of community college students differ from 4-year students living on university campuses, yet the scientific literature around BASICS and public health focused substantially on the latter. Almost 40% of undergraduate students in the United States attend community colleges that have large commuter populations and less physical infrastructure like student health clinics. Jason R. Kilmer, who worked on the original BASICS model, was involved with the project led by Christine M. Lee. BASICCS adopts a digital-first approach that embraces remote accessibility and mobile integrations like a text notification component to substitute for the reinforcement provided by in-person peers. The trial showed that, at the three months mark, there was about a 29% reduction in alcoholic drinks consumed weekly compared to control groups.
History and Etymology
BASCIS has its origins in the individualized intervention portion of another proposal called the Alcohol Skills Training Program (ASTP), which combined CBT-style cognitive behavioral skills with group facilitation. While the content is largely shared, BASICS allows for personalized approaches to discuss an individual’s alcohol consumption patterns. Historically, programs addressing alcohol use disorder on college campuses was rooted in abstinence-only education, but BASICS represents a step towards evidence-backed harm reduction philosophy instead. [^0]
Links
[^0] Thirty Years of BASICS: Dissemination and Implementation Progress and Challenges