Impacts of Alcohol Warning Labels: An Online Experiment

University of North Carolina (UNC)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Alcohol Drinking

Treatments: Behavioral: Colorectal Cancer; Behavioral: Dementia; Behavioral: Control; Behavioral: Drinking Guidelines; Behavioral: Hypertension; Behavioral: Throat and Mouth Cancer; Behavioral: Multiple Cancers; Behavioral: Liver Cancer; Behavioral: Current Warning; Behavioral: Liver Disease

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06442800

23-1218a

1R01AA030548-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this experiment is to examine responses to alcohol warning messages about 10 different topics among US adult alcohol consumers. The main questions this experiment aims to answer are:

Which warning topics make alcohol consumers in the US want to drink less alcohol? Which warning topics remind alcohol consumers in the US of alcohol's harms? Which warning topics help alcohol consumers in the US learn something new? There will be a total of 20 alcohol messages, 2 messages for each of the 10 topics. For each topic, participants will be randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 messages so that they view a total of 10 alcohol messages. All 10 messages will be shown in random order. Participants will rate each message on how much it makes them want to drink less alcohol, reminds them that drinking can be harmful, and teaches them something new.

Full description

This study aims to determine which topics in alcohol warning labels are most effective at making US adults who consume alcohol want to drink less alcohol, which topics best remind consumers of alcohol's harms, and which topics are most likely to teach consumers something new. The survey research company NORC at the University of Chicago will recruit a sample of 1,000 US adults ages 21+ who consumed alcohol at least one time per week during the past 4 weeks.

Participants will complete a within-subjects online randomized experiment in which they view and rate messages shown on alcohol containers. Participants will rate each message on perceived message effectiveness (primary outcome), reminding of alcohol's harms (secondary outcome), and learning something new (secondary outcome). These tasks will be repeated for 10 messages, each with a different topic. There will be 9 warning topics (i.e., topics about alcohol's harms) and 1 control topic (i.e., neutral topic not about alcohol's harms). In this within-subjects experiment, the survey will present the topics in random order and participants will view 1 of 2 messages for each topic.

Enrollment: 1,123 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 21 and older
• Reside in the United States
• Able to complete a survey in English
• Consumed alcohol at least once per week during the past 4 weeks

Exclusion criteria

• Under the age of 21
• Reside outside of the United States
• Unable to complete a survey in English
• Consumed alcohol less than once per week during the past 4 weeks

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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1,123 participants in 1 patient group

Alcohol Messages

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will view and rate 10 messages shown on alcohol containers.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Liver Disease

Behavioral: Current Warning

Behavioral: Multiple Cancers

Behavioral: Liver Cancer

Behavioral: Hypertension

Behavioral: Throat and Mouth Cancer

Behavioral: Drinking Guidelines

Behavioral: Control

Behavioral: Dementia

Behavioral: Colorectal Cancer