Heavy episodic drinking is high among college students in the United States. Due to the negative consequences of heavy episodic drinking, low cost and efficacious interventions are important. This study looks at a combined web-based and interactive text messaging intervention to decrease heavy drinking to reduce negative consequences.
The study included 30 undergraduate students who reported 2 or more heaving drinking episodes in the previous month. The average age of participants was 18.87 years. Drinking measures included frequency of heavy drinking episodes and a sum of consequences endorsed on the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire. Self-regulation processes were measured to look at “Curbing/limiting the amount of alcohol that you consume per occasion.” Readiness to change alcohol-use behavior was measured along with cognitive-behavioral strategies and perceived alcohol-use norms. Participants where then randomly placed into groups with one group completing an empirical web-based intervention that provided personalized feedback. Next, they received weekly text messages related to their alcohol use. The other group was an Assessment Only control group. All participants completed a follow-up questionnaire one month after.
Results showed that students reported a mean of 4.3 heavy drinking episodes and 4.87 alcohol-related negative consequences in the previous month. The Web + Text intervention proved to have a statistically significant impact on heavy drinking episodes but not on consequences. This impact was medium to large when compared with assessment only intervention. Self-monitoring was shown to be the most impacted by the combination intervention. Overall, there was high overall engagement with the text messages allowing for promising feasibility of this intervention approach.
Take Away: This study looks at a combined web-based and interactive text messaging intervention to decrease heavy drinking to reduce negative consequences. Measures included frequency of heavy drinking episodes, sum of consequences, self-regulation, readiness to change, cognitive-behavioral strategies, and perceives alcohol-use norms. Participants were randomly placed into a Web and Text based intervention or an assessment only intervention. The Web + Text intervention proved to have a statistically significant impact on heavy drinking episodes but not on consequences. Self-monitoring was shown to be the most impacted by the combination intervention. Overall, there was high overall engagement with the text messages allowing for promising feasibility of this intervention approach.
Chavez, K., & Palfai, T. P. (2020). Reducing Heavy Episodic Drinking among College Students Using a Combined Web and Interactive Text Messaging Intervention. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/07347324.2020.1784067