Assessment of Emerging Technologies to Support Individuals With At-Risk Alcohol Consumption: Pilot Controlled...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Biomedical Engineering
• Clinical Research

Background:

• Swedish alcohol guidelines updated, classifying nearly 30% of the population as at-risk.
• Need for scalable interventions to support individuals with at-risk alcohol consumption.

Purpose of the Study:

• Evaluate efficient, scalable technologies for supporting individuals with risk-prone alcohol consumption.
• Explore innovative, accessible technologies for large-scale public health interventions.

Main Methods:

• Pilot-scale clinical study involving 8 healthy volunteers.
• Controlled alcohol consumption monitored via mobile phone-integrated eye-scanning tool.
• Saliva sampling for serotonin and orexin biomarkers.

Main Results:

• Eye-scanning parameters shifted at 0.4-0.5 per mille blood alcohol concentration, showing impaired eye convergence.
• Participants experienced app usability issues around 0.5 per mille.
• Salivary biomarkers (serotonin, orexin) did not correlate with alcohol intake.

Conclusions:

• Eye scanning demonstrates potential as a noninvasive method for detecting alcohol consumption effects.
• Serotonin and orexin biomarkers were not informative in this context.
• Eye-scanning tools require further investigation in larger studies for scalable support development.