Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2011 Jun 30;13(2):e43.
doi: 10.2196/jmir.1695.

Curbing alcohol use in male adults through computer generated personalized advice: randomized controlled trial

Brigitte Boon  1 , Anneke Risselada, Annemarie Huiberts, Heleen Riper, Filip Smit
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Curbing alcohol use in male adults through computer generated personalized advice: randomized controlled trial

Brigitte Boon et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: In recent years, interventions that deliver online personalized feedback on alcohol use have been developed and appear to be a feasible way to curb heavy drinking. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) among the general adult population, however, are scarce. The present study offers an RCT of Drinktest.nl, an online personalized feedback intervention in the Netherlands.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of computer-based personalized feedback on heavy alcohol use in male adults.

Methods: Randomization stratified by age and educational level was used to assign participants to either the intervention consisting of online personalized feedback or an information-only control condition. Participants were told as a cover story that they would evaluate newly developed health education materials. Participants were males (n = 450), aged 18 to 65 years, presenting with either heavy alcohol use (> 20 units of alcohol weekly) and/or binge drinking (> 5 units of alcohol at a single occasion at least 1 day per week) in the past 6 months. They were selected with a screener from a sampling frame of 25,000 households. The primary outcome measure was the percentage of the participants that had successfully reduced their drinking levels to below the Dutch guideline threshold for at-risk drinking.

Results: Intention-to-treat analysis showed that in the experimental condition, 42% (97/230) of the participants were successful in reducing their drinking levels to below the threshold at the 1-month follow-up as compared with 31% (67/220) in the control group (odds ratio [OR] = 1.7, number needed to treat [NNT] = 8.6), which was statistically significant (χ(2) (1) = 6.67, P = .01). At the 6-month follow-up, the success rates were 46% (105/230) and 37% (82/220) in the experimental and control conditions, respectively (OR = 1.4, NNT = 11.9), but no longer statistically significant (χ(2) (1) = 3.25, P = .07).

Conclusions: Personalized online feedback on alcohol consumption appears to be an effective and easy way to change unhealthy drinking patterns in adult men, at least in the short-term.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None declared

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. World Health Organization . WHO Expert Committee on Problems Related to Alcohol Consumption, Second Report. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO technical report series, number 944; 2007. [2011-06-07]. 5zGEO5E66 http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/expert_committee_alcohol_trs944.pdf. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . The World Health Report 2002: Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2002. [2011-06-07]. 5zGEkEERC http://www.who.int/whr/2002/en/whr02_en.pdf.
    1. World Health Organization . Global Status Report on Alcohol 2004. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse; 2004. [2011-06-07]. 5zGEtTs1y http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_status_report_200....
    1. Holman CD, English DR, Milne E, Winter MG. Meta-analysis of alcohol and all-cause mortality: a validation of NHMRC recommendations. Med J Aust. 1996 Feb 5;164(3):141–5. - PubMed
    1. Smit F, Cuijpers P, Oostenbrink J, Batelaan N, de Graaf R, Beekman A. Costs of nine common mental disorders: implications for curative and preventive psychiatry. J Ment Health Policy Econ. 2006 Dec;9(4):193–200. - PubMed

Publication types