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; or
  • A “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.

DISCLOSURES:

The NIAAA funded the study. Disclosures are noted in the original study..