Daily Tailored Text Messages Curb Risky Drinking

TOPLINE:

A 6-month texting intervention offering automated customized messages of support for people with a history of alcohol misuse helped cut weekly alcohol intake by more than half, results of a new randomized controlled trial show.

METHODOLOGY:

Investigators recruited 723 adults (median age, 40 years; 62.5% female; 79% White) who consumed at least nine to 11 standard drinks per week and wanted to reduce their drinking.Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups:A drink tracking group, which received weekly texts that inquired about their past 7-day alcohol consumption and progress toward their weekly goal;A “tailored statically” messaging group, which received daily tailored texts, half of which were based on participants’ perception of their achievements; orA “tailored adaptive” messaging group, which received daily texts based on weekly self-reported goal achievement.Participants could also text keywords to receive instantaneous support texts when needed.Participants’ alcohol intake was assessed at baseline and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months.

TAKEAWAY:

Alcohol consumption at baseline was 27 standard drinks per week, with five drinks on an average day and eight drinks on the heaviest days.All groups significantly reduced their weekly drinking by an average of 12.9 drinks at the 12-month follow-up.Reductions were greatest in the tailored adaptive messaging group, which cut alcohol intake by more than half at the 6-month follow-up, to 13 drinks per week from 29 at baseline (adjusted risk ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.71-0.91).By the 6-month mark, the tailored adaptive messaging group also reported a significantly reduced number of drinks per drinking day (adjusted relative risk, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.77-0.92) and drinking days per week compared with the drink tracking group (beta, -0.39; 95% CI, -0.67 to 0.10).

IN PRACTICE:

“Given both the debilitating personal consequences of excessive alcohol consumption and the economic burden and costs to society, reducing binge drinking episodes by 8.2 a month and weekly drinking by 12.9 drinks per week can have a measurable impact on public health through rapid scaling without significant implementation costs,” study authors write.

SOURCE:

Frederick Muench, PhD, of the Partnership to End Addiction in New York, led the study, which was published online on November 27, 2023, in Addiction.

LIMITATIONS:

The sample had limited demographic characteristics because the majority of participants were White and female; the investigators therefore note that the study should be expanded to include more diverse populations. Also, even with significant reductions in drinking, most of the participants were still binge-drinking on a weekly basis and did not meet the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) criteria for healthy drinking.