College Student Daily Life and Alcohol Use Study

Boston University Charles River Campus

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Drinking Heavy; Drinking, College

Treatments: Behavioral: Text messaging boosters; Behavioral: eCHECKUP TO GO

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06365125

7313E

Details and patient eligibility

About

Heavy alcohol use among college students is associated with a range of negative consequences. However, college students rarely seek resources or treatment to change their alcohol use. Brief alcohol interventions (BAIs) have been developed as an alternative method to address heavy alcohol use among college students and show promise in reducing hazardous alcohol use in college students. Despite the established efficacy of BAIs, effects are often small and short-lived, and additional research is needed to investigate how BAIs can become more efficacious and endure for longer periods of time, particularly for computer-delivered interventions to improve accessibility and scalability of these interventions to a wider range of college students. Boosters or adjunctive components to BAIs have been suggested as a method to enhance the magnitude and duration of intervention effects. However, there remains a need to identify and test booster approaches that are both appealing and engaging to college students and effective in reducing heavy/hazardous alcohol use above and beyond the magnitude and duration seen by BAIs alone. The purpose of the study is to develop and test a novel, text-messaging booster as an adjunct to a current, evidence-based brief intervention, eCHECKUP TO GO, aimed at reducing college student heavy/hazardous alcohol use. Participants will complete baseline measures and will then be randomized to 1 of 3 conditions, stratified by sex at birth: 1) assessment only, 2) BAI only, and 3) Enhanced Intervention (BAI + four weeks of text messaging boosters). It is hypothesized that those randomized to the enhanced intervention condition will show a greater reduction in heavy/hazardous alcohol use at 3-month follow-up compared to the BAI and assessment only groups.

Enrollment: 129 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 30 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 1. Ages 18-30; 2) report at least 2 heavy drinking episodes in the past month; 3) be enrolled in an undergraduate degree program; 4) own a smartphone with capability to run smartphone application

Exclusion criteria

• 1. current or past-year treatment (counseling or medication) for alcohol or drug use, 2) history of delirium tremens and/or seizures as a result of alcohol withdrawal, and 3) a lifetime diagnosis of either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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129 participants in 3 patient groups

Assessment Only

No Intervention group

Description:

Assessment only condition, no intervention material delivered to this group

Intervention (BAI) Only

Active Comparator group

Description:

Only the brief alcohol intervention, eCHECKUP TO GO, is administered to this group

Treatment:

Behavioral: eCHECKUP TO GO

Enhanced Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Brief alcohol intervention, eCHECKUP TO GO, + 4 weeks of text messaging boosters (Monday, Thursday-Sunday)

Treatment:

Behavioral: eCHECKUP TO GO

Behavioral: Text messaging boosters