Timing Personalized Feedback After Alcohol Health Education

Summary

Heavy episodic alcohol use within the college student population is widespread, creating problems for student drinkers, their peers, and their institutions. Negative consequences from heavy alcohol use can be mild (e.g., hangovers, missed classes), to severe (e.g., assault, even death). Although online interventions targeting college student drinking reduce alcohol consumption and associated problems, they are not as effective as in-person interventions. Online interventions are cost-effective, offer privacy, reduce stigma, and may reach individuals who would otherwise not receive treatment.

In a recently completed randomized, controlled trial, an emailed booster with personalized feedback improved the efficacy of a popular online intervention (Braitman \& Henson, 2016). A second randomized, controlled trial confirmed efficacy for students of legal drinking age for a longer timeline (Braitman \& Lau-Barraco, 2018). Although promising, the booster incorporated in the study needs further empirical refinement.

The current project seeks to build on past progress by further developing and refining the booster. In particular, to identify the most efficacious timing for sending the feedback. The content will be similar across conditions, but will be disseminated at different times to identify the most impactful timeline. There will be 6 study conditions: those who receive the emailed feedback 2, 6, 10, or 14 weeks after baseline, or at all of those times, or not at all (control). Thus, the aim of the current study is to identify optimal timing for sending the tailored booster feedback via booster email.

Conditions

• College Student Drinking

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

e-checkup to go

The e-checkup to go alcohol program is designed to motivate individuals to reduce their alcohol consumption using personalized information about their own use and risk factors. The program is a combination of several components including alcohol education, personalized feedback, attitude-focused strategies, and skills training. It is self-guided and requires no face-to-face time with an administrator. It provides tailored feedback regarding quantity and frequency of alcohol use, normative comparisons, physical health information, amount and percent of income spent on alcohol, negative consequences feedback, explanation and advice for how to reach their goals, and resources.

BEHAVIORAL

Feedback booster

Booster emails will contain normative feedback indicating average consumption for students at the same institution by sex, their perceptions of student drinkers at the same institution, their own reported consumption, and reminders of strategies they can use to protect themselves from alcohol-related harm.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

  collaborator NIH

• Abby Braitman

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Abby L Braitman, Ph.D. · Old Dominion University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

24 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-11-30

Primary Completion

2022-09-12

Completion

2022-09-12

Countries

• United States

Study Locations