Alcohol & Mobile Phone Study to Reduce High-risk Alcohol Use and Consequences

Not Applicable

Brief Summary: The proposed study will develop a smartphone/mobile app intervention that incorporates ecological momentary assessment (i.e., two brief surveys per day) and daily intervention messaging (2 messages per day) for three weeks to target high-risk alcohol use among young adult college students. The intervention mainly focuses on alcohol expectancies, alcohol use, and consequences and the daily associations between these and includes personalized intervention messages based on participants' own event-level expectations and experiences. Other psycho-educational alcohol-related content is also provided over the course of three week intervention. This mobile app intervention will be used in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing young adult college students who receive the intervention with those who only receive assessments via the mobile app.

Detailed Description: The purpose of this study is to develop and test a smartphone app that can both collect daily data and deliver a personalized intervention (mAEC) using participants' own event-level, real-world experiences to challenge proximal alcohol expectancies and alter the associations between alcohol expectancies and drinking and consequences. The mobile app intervention will be used in a randomized controlled trial comparing young adult college students who receive the intervention with those who only receive assessments via the mobile app. Assessments include an eligibility survey, baseline assessment, and follow-up assessments occurring 1-, 6-, and 12-months post-intervention.

The goal of the intervention is to target college students' alcohol expectancies (what they believe or expect alcohol's effects to be) and the associations between alcohol expectancies and alcohol use and related consequences. Intervention content will utilize twice daily messages, one in the morning (AM Messages) and one in the late afternoon or early evening (PM Messages). Most PM Messages draw on information collected in the daily assessments (Personalized Messages). Intervention Messages in general will include feedback based on selected assessment items, weekly summaries generated from the daily assessments, general psycho-educational messages and videos about alcohol, and a toolbox with content that supplements information provided in the daily intervention messages.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Typically drinking 2+ days/week, having at least 1 occasion of heavy episodic drinking (4+ women/5+ men) in last 2 weeks, having 4 or more negative consequences in the last month, owning a smartphone with a data package, agreeing to install the app on their phone and receive notifications.
Student at a 2- or 4- year college where recruitment is located

Exclusion Criteria

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Daily Drinking Questionnaire - Typical Number of Drinks Per Week	Baseline, 1-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up	The count of self-reported typical number of drinks consumed per week during the past month
Peak Estimated Blood Alcohol Concentration (Peak eBAC)	Baseline, 1-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up	The eBAC reached during the heaviest drinking episode during the past month based on self-reported number of drinks, sex, and hours drinking
Number of Heavy Episodic Drinking Days	Baseline, 1-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up	Self-reported number of days of heavy episodic drinking (4+ drinks for females/5+ drinks for males) in the past two weeks
Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire	Baseline, 1-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up	Total sum score on the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire based on number of self-reported alcohol-related consequences experienced in the past month (range from 0-24 consequences). Higher scores indicate reporting greater number of negative alcohol-related consequences.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test Total Score	Baseline and 12-month follow-up	Measure of hazardous/harmful drinking in the past year based on indicators of alcohol use disorder (Total score range: 0-40, with higher values indicating greater hazardous/harmful drinking)

Locations (1): University of Washington
🇺🇸
Seattle, Washington, United States