Evaluating the Efficacy of a Brief Online Intervention Among Current Heavy Drinkers

September 11, 2023 updated by: King's College London

Unhealthy alcohol consumption is common in the UK and causes tremendous harm to the individual, as well as harm to others. A significant gap in providing alcohol support is that most people with unhealthy alcohol consumption will never receive advice to cut down on their drinking. However, many are interested in self-directed interventions to help them evaluate their drinking and to motivate reductions in alcohol use. One such promising intervention uses online personalised normative feedback (PNF) which compares a person's drinking with others in the general population of the same age and sex. PNF interventions are thought to work because many people with unhealthy alcohol consumption overestimate how much others drink. Multiple trials have demonstrated that providing PNF to people with unhealthy consumption reduces their alcohol use . While several UK websites do provide feedback on assessment of risk (e.g., Down Your Drink introductory section, Alcohol Change UK), there appears to be no online intervention that provides PNF for unhealthy alcohol consumption.

The major objective of this pilot project is to conduct a two-arm, parallel group randomised controlled trial (RCT) in which 1,318 participants recruited from the Prolific website who have identified themselves as drinking 14 or more units per week are randomly assigned to one of two groups - a) those who are offered a PNF report, and b) those in a no intervention comparator group. Participants in the comparator group will not be provided any intervention materials but will instead be given a list of the different components of the PNF feedback and will be asked to think about how useful they would find each of them. Follow-up assessment will occur at 1 and 6 months post-randomisation. The project is described as a pilot because it is a preliminary evaluation of the PNF intervention in a UK context.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

867

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • United Kingdom
      • London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS
        • King's College London

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1) score 8 or more on the AUDIT (indicating current unhealthy alcohol use); and 2) endorsed the attention check questions correctly.

Exclusion Criteria:

Not meeting these inclusion criteria forms the exclusion criteria

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Experimental: Brief Check Your Drinking (CYD)
The CYD is a brief online intervention designed to provide personalized normative feedback aimed at motivating reductions in drinking
Behavioral: Brief Check Your Drinking (CYD)
The CYD is a brief online intervention designed to provide personalized normative feedback aimed at motivating reductions in drinking

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Number of drinks consumed during a typical week
Time Frame: Three months
Three months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

King's College London

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 2, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 3, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

July 31, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 2, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 2, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

March 14, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 13, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 11, 2023

Last Verified

March 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HR-22/23-34937

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Available from the PI upon reasonable request.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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