Pilot Study of a Text Message Platform to Reduce Risky Drinking in Young Adults

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Alcohol Abuse; Alcohol Consumption; Drinking Behavior
• Interventions: Behavioral: Motivational and Normative Feedback; Behavioral: Self-Awareness

• Registration Number: NCT01197352
• Lead Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh

Brief Summary

Young adults are in a critical period where they can be influenced to avoid a trajectory of high-risk drinking and harmful outcomes in the later adult years. The Emergency Department might offer a unique opportunity to reach young adults, if an easy to implement screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment was available. The investigators are investigating the feasibility and accuracy of ED-initiated and outpatient-continued assessment of drinking behavior in young adults using a computer-driven text messaging platform. Based on the subject's response to weekly assessments, the computer platform will send personalized motivational messages in real-time.

Detailed Description

Greater than 45% of young adults have heavy episodic drinking (HED; 5/4 drinks per occasion form men/women), resulting in significant health risks, including injury and death. Early identification and secondary prevention of HED using screening, brief interventions and referral to treatment (SBIRT) is advocated by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as a way to reduce injury and health consequences. Each day in the United States, there are over 2700 emergency department (ED) visits associated with alcohol, unfortunately, SBIRT is rarely performed in the ED due to time and training requirements. Our application seeks to solve this problem by integrating SBIRT into ED care through the use of ecological assessments with interventions. We will incorporate components of the NIAAA 2005 Clinicians Guide into automated weekly assessments (EA) and branching algorithms for personalized interventions (EA\&I) delivered in real-time through mobile phone text messaging to young adults with a history of at-risk drinking behavior. We will assess the feasibility of EA\&I to study young adults with a history of at-risk drinking and assess the variability in outcomes in patients undergoing EA\&I, EA or standard care. We expect to find that this ED-initiated and outpatientcontinued platform will improve collection of drinking behavior, delivery of real-world motivational feedback and follow-up in young adults with at-risk drinking histories. We anticipate that short-term HED will be reduced in those subjects randomized to EA\&I. We will use this information to support further studies with adequate power to show ED-initiated EA\&I reduce long-term HED and its adverse consequences in young adults.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2010-08
• Study First Submitted: 2010-08-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-09-07
• Study First Posted: 2010-09-09
• Primary Completion: 2011-02
• Study Completion: 2011-02
• Status Verified: 2012-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-05-18
• Last Update Posted: 2012-05-21

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 45

Inclusion Criteria

• 18-24 years
• English speaking
• Owns a personal phone with text messaging

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Exclusion Criteria

• Pregnant
• Prisoner
• Treated for alcohol dependence or abuse
• Treated for psychiatric disorder

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Text message queries with feedback	Motivational and Normative Feedback	Weekly prompted queries about drinking behavior with personalized feedback.
Text message queries	Self-Awareness	Weekly prompted queries about drinking behavior

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Ability of system to collect drinking information from young adults	12 weeks	We will report the proportion of weeks with completed drinking assessments in the EA and EA\&I groups.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of binge drinking episodes in subjects as a measure of safety and efficacy	12 weeks	We will compare the number of binge drinking episodes between subjects in the three groups.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Emergency Department; 🇺🇸 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States