Pairing a Validated Alcohol Intervention With Social Media Alcohol Risk Identification: Impact on Alcohol Behaviors...

Community college (CC) students are an at-risk population for binge drinking and its consequences. The Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) is an evidence-based, feasible, and acceptable intervention to reduce risky drinking. Without a college health center, CC students may not have access to interventions like BASICS. Social media may present novel opportunities for identification and intervention. This brief describes secondary outcomes of alcohol behaviors and displayed alcohol references from Social Media-Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students, a social media-based randomized controlled trial.

Participants were recruited from 5 CC campuses. Data collection included self-reported alcohol behaviors and 9 months of observed alcohol displays on social media content. Participants who posted escalated alcohol displays on social media were randomized to the BASICS intervention or active control.

Of 172 participants (mean age 22.9, 92% female), 101 displayed alcohol escalation on social media and were randomized. Intervention participants (n = 51) reported a significant within-group reduction of nearly 2 binge drinking episodes monthly (-1.64, 95% CI: 1.19-2.28, p = .003). Reductions in monthly displayed alcohol references of approximately 2 posts per month were observed for both groups.

This pilot intervention showed modest reductions in binge drinking and support further testing of the Social Media-Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students intervention.