{"id":555,"date":"2010-01-01T10:04:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jaydub.cms-devl.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/2010\/01\/01\/internet-based-intervention-reduces-alcohol-use\/"},"modified":"2017-01-31T11:46:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T16:46:10","slug":"internet-based-intervention-reduces-alcohol-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/2010\/01\/01\/internet-based-intervention-reduces-alcohol-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet-based Intervention Reduces Alcohol Use"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"research-summary-body\">\n                    <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"contents\" --><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial; font-size:10.0pt; \">Patients with unhealthy alcohol use often do not seek formal treatment, and alcohol interventions are in limited use in nonspecialty medical settings. In this study, Canadian researchers randomized 185 general-population survey respondents who scored \u22654 on the 3 consumption items from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) to gain access to <a href=\"http:\/\/checkyourdrinking.net\/cyd\/CYDScreenerP1_0.aspx\">CheckYourDrinking.net<\/a>, a Web-based alcohol intervention (n=92), or to no intervention (n=93). The site guides participants through a brief assessment and provides normative feedback comparing participant drinking to age-, sex-, and country-matched peers as well as a personalized summary of any alcohol problems. The mean age of participants in this study was 40 years. Fifty-three percent were men, and 63% were employed.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>The follow-up rate was 93% at 6       months.                    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Among participants with AUDIT       scores of \u226511 at baseline (suggesting heavier drinking), consumption       decreased by 6 drinks per week on average among those in the intervention       group at 6 months (p&lt;0.05), while no significant reduction was seen among       controls.                    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>No reductions in drinking were       seen among participants in either group who had AUDIT scores of 4 to 10 at       baseline.*                    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Analyses included the one-third       of subjects who were randomized to the intervention group but never       accessed the Web site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!-- InstanceEndEditable --><\/p>\n<div class=\"research-summary-footnotes-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"footnotes-1\" -->*An AUDIT score of \u22658 is often considered a cutoff for unhealthy alcohol use.<!-- InstanceEndEditable -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"research-summary-comments\">Comments:<\/h2>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"comments\" -->This study adds to growing evidence that personalized, Web-based alcohol assessment and feedback can reduce alcohol use. Given that the sample was population-based, it is clinically notable that the intervention was most effective among heavier drinkers at an order of magnitude similar to that of face-to-face brief counseling in medical settings. Furthermore, the intervention was truly referral-only, since intent-to-treat analyses included those who did not visit the site. Referral to <a href=\"http:\/\/checkyourdrinking.net\/CYD\/CYDScreenerP1_0.aspx\">CheckYourDrinking.net<\/a> or similar Web sites appears to be a reasonable option for patients with unhealthy alcohol use.<!-- InstanceEndEditable --><br \/>\n                    <cite><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"name\" -->Peter D. Friedmann, MD, MPH<!-- InstanceEndEditable --><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/cite><\/p>\n<div class=\"research-summary-footnotes\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"footnotes\" --><!-- InstanceEndEditable -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<h2>Reference:<\/h2>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"reference\" --><\/p>\n<p>Cunningham JA, Wild  TC, Cordingley J, et al.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/19922569\"> A randomized controlled trial of an internet-based  intervention for alcohol abusers.<\/a> <em>Addiction.<\/em> 2009;104(12):2023\u20132032.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceEndEditable -->\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patients with unhealthy alcohol use often do not seek formal treatment, and alcohol interventions are in limited use in nonspecialty medical settings. In this study, Canadian researchers randomized 185 general-population survey respondents who scored \u22654 on the 3 consumption items from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) to gain access to CheckYourDrinking.net, a Web-based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[76],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2720,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/2720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}