Evaluating Co-Designed vs Researcher-Driven Personalized Feedback Formats in a Brief Digital Alcohol Use...

Area of Science:

• Digital Health Interventions
• Behavioral Science
• Public Health

Background:

• Brief digital interventions are increasingly used for alcohol misuse.
• Tailoring personalized feedback using consumer-driven research is underexplored.
• The efficacy of co-designed versus researcher-designed interventions needs investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To elicit user-designed personalized feedback for a digital alcohol intervention.
• To investigate differences in behavior change capacity, opportunity, and motivation.
• To compare participant preference for co-designed versus researcher-designed feedback.
• To evaluate changes in alcohol consumption based on feedback format.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory sequential mixed methods approach.
• Online co-design process with young adults (N=40).
• Survey of young adult drinkers (N=222) assigned to text-based or image-based feedback (researcher-designed or co-designed).
• Analysis of capacity, opportunity, motivation, preference, and alcohol consumption changes.

Main Results:

• Co-designed, image-based feedback was preferred by participants.
• No significant differences in capacity, opportunity, or motivation across feedback formats.
• All participants reduced alcohol intake and harm.
• Image-based feedback (co-designed or researcher-designed) led to greater reduction in drinking frequency compared to text-based.

Conclusions:

• Co-design principles are valuable in developing digital health interventions.
• Further research is required to establish the superior efficacy of co-designed interventions compared to those designed solely by researchers.