CARES: A Mobile Health Program for Alcohol Risk Reduction

Lifespan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Alcohol Abuse

Treatments: Behavioral: CARES mobile smart phone app; Behavioral: Check Your Drinking

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03927482

R42AA026788 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

7147117

Details and patient eligibility

About

In this fast-track STTR, Phase 1 will develop and test a mobile phone app among 40 adult community college students. The app is designed to reduce risky drinking behaviors and improve user safety. In Phase 2 the app ("CARES") will be tested with 200 adult community college students who drink alcohol. Participants will be randomly assigned to the "CARES" app or an alcohol education control condition and will use the app for 12 weeks. Six month outcomes will assess changes in drinking related behaviors.

Full description

This STTR builds on our successful pilot that developed a text message-delivered alcohol intervention for, and in collaboration with CCS. Phase I will develop and test a smart phone application (the "Cares" app) incorporating the text message program with additional features and functionality requested by students in the pilot trial (Aim 1.1). After obtaining user feedback (Aim 1.2) programming will be completed in both iOS and Android languages. To ensure that the College Alcohol Risk Education System (CARES) is well positioned to get into the community college marketplace, it is critical to demonstrate efficacy. Phase 2 will conduct an efficacy trial of CARES compared to a competing alcohol education program that would be feasible for most community colleges to adopt, thus providing a real-world comparison with data suitable to support future efforts toward commercialization. This study will also identify the types of individuals for whom CARES is more/less effective and identify how it might be improved.

Enrollment: 239 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 29 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Currently enrolled community college student
• At least 2 heavy drinking episodes in past 2 weeks at recruitment
• Own smart phone

Exclusion criteria

• Alcohol abuse disorder or currently in treatment for alcohol-related problems

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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239 participants in 2 patient groups

CARES mobile app

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will receive 12 weeks of text messages and use of the smart phone mobile app that provides support for alcohol risk reduction.

Treatment:

Behavioral: CARES mobile smart phone app

Alcohol Education

Active Comparator group

Description:

Those randomized to the control arm will be given access to an online alcohol education intervention; Check Your Drinking (CYD: www.CheckYourDrinking.net). CYD provides normative feedback on the user's drinking habits relative to his/her peers.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Check Your Drinking