Brief intervention for hazardous drinking delivered using text messaging: a pilot randomised controlled trial from...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Digital Health

Background:

• Hazardous alcohol consumption is a significant public health concern.
• Brief interventions (BI) are effective but require scalable delivery methods.
• Mobile health (mHealth) offers potential for widespread intervention delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• Evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a mobile-based BI for hazardous drinking.
• Generate preliminary data on the impact of mobile BI.
• Refine procedures for a future definitive randomized controlled trial.

Main Methods:

• A parallel, three-arm, single-blind, individually randomized controlled pilot trial was conducted.
• Participants (adult hazardous drinkers) were randomized to mobile BI, face-to-face BI, or an information leaflet.
• Data were collected from educational institutions, workplaces, and primary care centers.

Main Results:

• Seventy-four participants were randomized; 64.9% completed follow-up.
• No significant differences were observed between arms for overall drinking outcome changes.
• Mobile and face-to-face BI were superior to the control for reducing heavy drinking days and weekly ethanol consumption.

Conclusions:

• The mobile-based BI demonstrated feasibility and acceptability among hazardous drinkers.
• Preliminary results suggest mobile BI is a promising intervention for reducing alcohol consumption.
• These findings support a definitive randomized controlled trial to confirm efficacy and scalability in low-resource settings.