Abstract
BackgroundExcessive alcohol consumption is a leading cause of death and morbidity worldwide and interventions to help people reduce their consumption are needed. Interventions delivered by smartphone apps have the potential to help harmful and hazardous drinkers reduce their consumption of alcohol. However, there has been little evaluation of the effectiveness of existing smartphone interventions.A systematic review, amongst other methodologies, identified promising modular content that could be delivered by an app: self-monitoring and feedback; action planning; normative feedback; cognitive bias re-training; and identity change. This protocol reports a factorial randomised controlled trial to assess the comparative potential of these five intervention modules to reduce excessive alcohol consumption.MethodsA between-subject factorial randomised controlled trial. Hazardous and harmful drinkers aged 18 or over who are making a serious attempt to reduce their drinking will be randomised to one of 32 (25) experimental conditions after downloading the ‘Drink Less’ app. Participants complete baseline measures on downloading the app and are contacted after 1-month with a follow-up questionnaire. The primary outcome measure is change in past week consumption of alcohol. Secondary outcome measures are change in AUDIT score, app usage data and usability ratings for the app. A factorial between-subjects ANOVA will be conducted to assess main and interactive effects of the five intervention modules for the primary and secondary outcome measures.DiscussionThis study will establish the extent to which the five intervention modules offered in this app can help reduce hazardous and harmful drinking. This is the first step in optimising and understanding what component parts of an app could help to reduce excessive alcohol consumption. The findings from this study will be used to inform the content of a future integrated treatment app and evaluated against a minimal control in a definitive randomised control trial with long-term outcomes.Trial registrationISRCTN40104069 Date of registration: 10/2/2016Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3140-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Excessive alcohol consumption is a leading cause of death and morbidity worldwide and interventions to help people reduce their consumption are needed
In the UK, brief interventions for excessive alcohol use are available and appear to be both effective [5] and cost-effective [6, 7], they are not widely offered; less than 10 % of those drinking excessively receive a brief intervention on alcohol from their general practitioner (GP) [8]
Digital behaviour change interventions (DBCIs) delivered on websites, by email or through mobile phones offer the potential to increase the proportion of excessive drinkers receiving an alcohol brief intervention [9]
Summary
Excessive alcohol consumption is a leading cause of death and morbidity worldwide and interventions to help people reduce their consumption are needed. Interventions delivered by smartphone apps have the potential to help harmful and hazardous drinkers reduce their consumption of alcohol. A systematic review, amongst other methodologies, identified promising modular content that could be delivered by an app: self-monitoring and feedback; action planning; normative feedback; cognitive bias re-training; and identity change. This protocol reports a factorial randomised controlled trial to assess the comparative potential of these five intervention modules to reduce excessive alcohol consumption. Digital behaviour change interventions (DBCIs) delivered on websites, by email or through mobile phones offer the potential to increase the proportion of excessive drinkers receiving an alcohol brief intervention [9]. A 2016 Cochrane review of 40 RCTs found that DBCIs reduced alcohol consumption by 23.6 g of alcohol per week (equivalent of 2.95 UK units) more than controls [21, 22]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
