A Text Message Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Consumption in Young Adults

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Alcohol Consumption; Alcohol Intoxication
• Interventions: Behavioral: SMS Assessments & Feedback; Behavioral: SMS Assessments

• Registration Number: NCT01688245
• Lead Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh

Brief Summary

Investigators aim to test the effectiveness of a text-message-based behaivoral intervention in reducing binge drinking among young adults.

Detailed Description

Alcohol consumption, especially in the form of heavy episodic drinking (bingeing), is common among young adults. Despite high rates of illness and injury associated with heavy episodic drinking, many young adults are not aware of the risks, few seek help for their drinking and many at-risk are not exposed to prevention-based intervention. Opportunistic screening in hospital Emergency Departments (EDs) tied to behavioral interventions has the potential to prevent future alcohol-related harm among young adults, but efficacy across outcomes has been mixed and large-scale implementation of prevention programs is low. Given the rapidly growing use of cell phone text-messaging (SMS) as a primary form of communication among young adults, SMS could be used to deliver health prevention interventions. We will recruit young adults identified in the ED with hazardous drinking behavior in a 3-arm randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that exposure to a 12-week SMS program will result in immediate (3-month) and lasting (6-, and 9-month) decreases in alcohol consumption.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2012-09-14
• Study First Submitted QC: 2012-09-14
• Study First Posted: 2012-09-19
• Study Start: 2012-11
• Primary Completion: 2014-11
• Status Verified: 2015-05
• Study Completion: 2015-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2015-05-26
• Last Update Posted: 2015-05-27

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 765

Inclusion Criteria

• AUDIT-C score 3 or more for women and 4 or more for men

Exclusion Criteria

• Current treatment for psychiatric disease
• Any prior treatment for drug or alcohol use disorder

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
SMS Assessments & Feedback	SMS Assessments & Feedback	Weekly pre-weekend drinking intention \& post-weekend drinking outcome assessments with personalized feedback and harm-reduction support
SMS Assessments	SMS Assessments	Weekly post-weekend drinking outcome assessments

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Timeline Follow-back Procedure	30 Days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Injury Behavior Checklist	3 months

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Mercy Hospital; 🇺🇸 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States