Chatbot-delivered Screening and Brief Intervention for Alcohol Reduction in Working-age Adults

The University of Hong Kong (HKU)

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Excessive Alcohol Consumption

Treatments: Behavioral: chatbot-delivered screening and brief intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06602882

Alcohol chatbot for adults

Details and patient eligibility

About

Alcohol abuse led to 5.3% of all deaths and 5.1% of all disability-adjusted life years globally in 2016, representing a heavier public health burden than diabetes, tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS (as documented in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health). The increasing consumption of alcohol for a few decades has led to a higher risk of cirrhosis, cancers, hypertension, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Strengthening of the prevention and treatment of alcohol abuse has been incorporated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG3) by the United Nations.

Strong evidence from a meta-analysis demonstrated the efficacy of screening and brief intervention (SBI) in reducing weekly alcohol consumption. Although SBI is known to be effective in reducing alcohol consumption in at-risk drinkers, barriers to implementing SBI have been an issue. A systematic review identified that common barriers to the routine delivery of SBI by doctors and nurses included a lack of alcohol-related knowledge, time, confidence, ability, and incentive to intervene; worrying about offending patients; and SBI being an uncomfortable and frustrating task.

To scale up behavioural change interventions in primary care for expanding the scalability and reachability, artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-chatbots have been increasingly used in recent years. A systematic review showed that chatbots for mental health counselling were effective and safe. Other reviews also reported that chatbots might improve physical activity, diet, and weight management and oncology care. However, having searched PubMed and the Cochrane Library, there was no a randomised controlled trial on the use of an AI-chatbot for alcohol reduction.

Full description

Aim:

To adapt a self-developed SBI chatbot and conduct a proof-of-concept evaluation on its preliminary effectiveness and usability in reducing alcohol consumption after 4 weeks for at-risk working-age adults by using a randomised, open label, two-arm, parallel-group controlled trial.

Objectives of this project are:

1. To evaluate the SBI chatbot for its short-term effectiveness in reducing alcohol consumption in at-risk working-age adults over a 4-week period (primary outcome).
2. To evaluate the SBI chatbot in reducing alcohol-related harm risk measured by AUDIT scores over 4 week in at-risk working-age adults.
3. To assess the usability of the SBI chatbot by at-risk working-age adults.
4. To explore which factors are associated with, moderate, or mediate the effects of the SBI chatbot.

Hypotheses Hypothesis 1 (Primary outcome): Participants receiving chatbot-delivered SBI (intervention group) will have a higher reduction in weekly alcohol consumption (grams/week) than those in the waitlist control group at 4-week follow-up.

Hypothesis 2 (Secondary outcome): The intervention group will have a lower AUDIT score than the control group at 4-week follow-up.

Enrollment: 300 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 59 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. aged 18-59 years
2. being employed in the past 12 months
3. a modified Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) score ≥3
4. having a smartphone with internet access
5. able to communicate in Chinese

Exclusion criteria

1. mentally and/or
2. physically unable to complete the intervention and/or the two follow-ups
3. undergoing any alcohol-related intervention

Trial design

Primary purpose: Screening

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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300 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the intervention group will engage with a chatbot-delivered screening and brief intervention (SBI) over a 30-minute period on the chatbot webpage. The SBI chatbot involves screening individuals for alcohol consumption by AUDIT before recruitment and then providing a brief intervention comprising personalised feedback. Its delivery is fully automated via a smartphone app.

Treatment:

Behavioral: chatbot-delivered screening and brief intervention

Waitlist control group

Experimental group

Description:

All participants in the waitlist control will receive the SBI chatbot 4 weeks later. The intervention has the same content for both intervention and waitlist control groups.

Treatment:

Behavioral: chatbot-delivered screening and brief intervention