Adapting an Online Prevention Program to the Higher Education Area in Germany

Purpose: Hazardous alcohol consumption among university students represents a prime health risk for this population. Due to a lack of appropriate German-language (online) prevention programs, an existing U.S.-American program was transferred to the German higher education area and then evaluated. Method: For this purpose, both qualitative focus groups and a quantitative evaluation were undertaken. The guided focus groups allowed a further adaptation of the prevention program: An improved frequency–quantity questionnaire for the drinking behavior of German-speaking students was developed, and thresholds for hazardous consumption were included. Results: The additional quantitative verification of the adaptation found that 65.9% of the surveyed students found the adapted program suitable for the higher education context and 62.6% stated that every university should provide such a program. Discussion: The adaptation process described here made it possible to develop an online prevention program tailored to the lifeworld of students in the German-speaking region.