Brief Binge Eating and Drinking Online Intervention

A Mobile-Based Intervention to Address Heavy Drinking and Binge Eating in College Students

This pilot project targets both binge drinking and binge eating behavior in college students through a mobile-based online program that provides students with evidence-based intervention material designed to reduce the incidence of both behaviors and encourage students to seek more formal in-person counseling.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Binge Drinking; Binge Eating
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Brief Online Binge Eating and Drinking Intervention

Detailed Description

Despite the prevalence of binge drinking and binge eating behaviors among college students, few students seek care for either. Intervening with college students early is essential as untreated symptoms of binge drinking and binge eating behaviors can become more severe and persistent over time, often leading to diagnosed disorders and lasting consequences on students' social functioning, physical health, and educational attainment. Thus, the major goal of this research study is to target both binge drinking and binge eating behavior in college students through a mobile-based online program that provides students with evidence-based intervention material designed to reduce the incidence of both behaviors, as well as encourage students to seek more formal in-person counseling. The intervention combines two innovations to facilitate behavior change: (1) personalized drinking and binge eating intervention content with harm reduction and cognitive behavioral skills proven to be efficacious in reducing these problematic behaviors among college students delivered via (2) a mobile-based program that increases accessibility, is easy and engaging to use, and broadens the accessibility of the intervention content to an often non-treatment seeking group. The intervention is informed by evidence-based practices, with student and expert feedback, to help limit alcohol consumption, engage in healthier eating behaviors, and practice alternate strategies to manage negative affect.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 300
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Eric Pedersen, Ph.D.; Phone Number: 323-442-4046; Email: Eric.Pedersen@med.usc.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• full time undergraduate student at the study site
• between the ages of 18 and 24
• ability to speak and read English
• at least two occasions of binge drinking (5 or more drinks in a row for males, 4 (i.e., an objectively large amount of food with a self-reported loss of control) in the past 28 days
• at least two occasions of binge eating (i.e., an objectively large amount of food with a self-reported loss of control)151 in the past 28 days
• no receipt of mental health or substance use care in the past month.

Exclusion Criteria:

• not meeting eligibility criteria

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Brief Online Binge Eating and Drinking Intervention; The intervention is a 30 minute mobile phone program designed to address binge eating and drinking. The program addresses underlying loss of control, impulsivity, and emotion regulation common to both binge drinking and binge eating through videos, interactive activities, and psychoeducation.	Behavioral: Brief Online Binge Eating and Drinking Intervention; The intervention is an online mobile phone program developed by our research team. It builds upon efficacious brief alcohol interventions with college students by addressing underlying loss of control, impulsivity, and emotion regulation through the use of videos, interactive activities, and psychoeducation.; Other Names: Sip n' Savor
No Intervention: Resources Only; Campus-specific resources for how to access the university's counseling office (i.e., student mental health services), information about the Eating Disorders program at the university, and information on accessing the university's alcohol and drug awareness offices.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Frequency of past 28-day binge drinking	Number of binge drinking episodes in the past 28 days	Baseline, one-month follow-up, and three-month follow-up
Frequency of past 28-day binge eating	Number of binge eating episodes in the past 28 days	Baseline, one-month follow-up, and three-month follow-up
Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ)	21 alcohol-related consequences experienced in the past month	Baseline, one-month follow-up, and three-month follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mental Health/Substance Use Disorder Treatment History Inventory	Utilization of mental health and/or substance use care	Baseline, one-month follow-up, and three-month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern California

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): May 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): April 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): April 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 15, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 15, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): March 22, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 22, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 15, 2024
• Last Verified: March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Drinking Behavior; Alcohol-Related Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Alcohol Drinking; Signs and Symptoms, Digestive; Feeding and Eating Disorders; Hyperphagia; Binge Drinking; Bulimia; Binge-Eating Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: R34AA030655 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Following the NIH Data Sharing Policy and Implementation Guidelines, we plan to make the datasets available for sharing at the time that the main project findings are accepted for publication during the final year of the project.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Within one year of the main effects paper being submitted for publication
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Individual researchers can contact the PIs for data and through filling out a data request and use form that we will create for the purposes of data sharing.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No