Exploring Whether Self-affirmation Promotes Reduced Alcohol Consumption in Response to Narrative Health Information

University of Sussex

Status: Completed

Conditions: Alcohol Drinking

Treatments: Behavioral: Self-affirmation manipulation task; Behavioral: Control task

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02681900

ER/KJF25/4

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study tests the effects of a self-affirmation manipulation on (i) acceptance of a health message detailing the risks of alcohol consumption, (ii) engagement with the health message and (iii) alcohol consumption at 7-day follow-up. Half of the participants complete a self-affirmation manipulation, where they reflect on their most important values, whereas the other half complete a control equivalent, where they reflect on their least important values. Immediately post-intervention, all participants then receive information about the risks of alcohol consumption and complete measures of message acceptance and engagement with the materials. Seven days after intervention, participants self-report their alcohol consumption in the previous 7 days.

Enrollment: 142 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Female
• Drinkers

Exclusion criteria

• Male
• Non-drinkers

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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142 participants in 2 patient groups

Self-affirmation

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the self-affirmation arm write about their most important value, reasons why is important and an example of when they enacted that value. This is the Self-affirmation manipulation task as described in the intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Self-affirmation manipulation task

Control

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants in this arm complete a control equivalent of the self-affirmation task, where they write about their least important value, reasons why is may be important to someone else and an example of when another person may have enacted that value. This is the Control task as described in the intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Control task