Wearable Intervention for Alcohol Use Risk and Sleep in Young Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Behavioral Science
• Sleep Medicine

Background:

• Young adults in the US exhibit high rates of alcohol use disorder.
• Technology-based interventions show promise for reducing alcohol consumption.
• Sleep disturbances are common among young adults and linked to alcohol use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a multimodal digital intervention combining wearable feedback, coaching, and sleep advice.
• To assess the intervention's efficacy in reducing at-risk drinking and improving sleep health in young adults.
• To compare the intervention against control groups receiving advice or advice plus self-monitoring.

Main Methods:

• A parallel phase 2 randomized clinical trial involving 120 young adults (18-25 years) with sleep concerns and heavy drinking patterns.
• Intervention group received wearable feedback, coaching, web-based sleep advice, and smartphone self-monitoring.
• Control groups received advice alone or advice plus self-monitoring for 2 weeks, with follow-up to 12 weeks.
• Primary outcome: total number of drinks (weeks 4-12). Secondary outcomes: sleep disturbance, sleep-related impairment, alcohol-related consequences.
• Exploratory outcome: reduction in World Health Organization (WHO) drinking risk level.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in the primary outcome (total drinks) between the intervention and control groups.
• The intervention group showed clinically meaningful reductions in sleep-related impairment compared to the control A group.
• Participants in the intervention group were over 3 times more likely to reduce their WHO drinking risk level.
• Sleep disturbance improvement was associated with a reduction in WHO drinking risk level.

Conclusions:

• The digital intervention did not significantly reduce total alcohol consumption or sleep disturbance.
• The intervention demonstrated significant improvements in sleep-related impairment and drinking risk reduction.
• Further research with larger sample sizes is warranted to confirm these findings.
• This technology-based approach holds potential for addressing co-occurring alcohol and sleep issues in young adults.