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Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Epidemiology and Prevention of Alcohol Misuse in Understudied Young Adult Populations; Military, Workforce, and Community College

National Institutes of Health

The purpose of this future grant application solicitation is to balance the NIAAA research portfolio by supporting research on alcohol misuse among persons aged 18 to 29 who are not enrolled in four-year colleges or universities. These persons are commonly in the military, workforce, or community college populations, which are understudied relative to their age peers in four-year colleges. Research on epidemiology, prevention, and screening centered on these understudied populations are all encouraged.

The trajectory of alcohol misuse among late adolescents and young adults has been a central topic of interest in research on alcohol epidemiology and prevention. This is because both heavy drinking and alcohol misuse peak in the late teens and early twenties, declining thereafter. For example, pooled data from the 2018 and 2019 waves of the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) show that the prevalence of past month binge drinking peaks to 43% at age 21 and remains above 40% through age 25.

The age period 18 to 29 is one where several risk factors concentrate. Alcohol becomes legally available, there is a transition away from parental oversight, normative perceptions and alcohol expectancies tend to support heavier drinking, and intimate relationship formation becomes a focus of social life.

Consequently, much research on alcohol epidemiology and prevention has focused on this age period. However, the bulk of that research has focused on four-year college students. Perhaps this is not surprising given that student subjects are “close to hand” for university-based researchers and in an environment that can be monitored and regulated to some degree, and that college administrators have raised the demand for interventions with demonstrated effectiveness. NIAAA’s College AIM product demonstrates that this campus-focused research has borne fruit.

However, other population segments in the same age category have been understudied. These most notably include young adults who are in the military, the workforce, or community colleges, and subjects of all genders and gender orientations. This solicitation encourages research on: the dynamics of risk and protective factors for alcohol misuse, AUD and other alcohol-related consequences among these groups, the development and validation of effective prevention interventions, and the improvement of screening, brief interventions, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) protocols for these groups.

It is highly encouraged that women and minorities, especially in the understudied groups, as participants in research involving human subjects are included as described in NIH Policies for Research Involving Human Subjects . NIAAA also encourages that individuals who identify as members of the LBGTQ community are included as participants in the studies proposed from this solicitation.

This notice applies to due dates on or after June 5, 2022 and subsequent receipt dates through September 8, 2025.

NOT-AA-22-001