NCT04025151

Nurse-led Alcohol Brief Intervention Plus Mobile Personalized Chat-based Support on Reducing Alcohol Use in University Students

Nurse-led Alcohol Brief Intervention Plus Mobile Personalized Chat-based Support on Reducing Alcohol Use in University Students: a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 770 (estimated)
• Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study aims to assess the effect of personalized support using instant messaging application on alcohol drinking reduction in university students proactively recruited from universities in Hong Kong.

Detailed description

The government has promoted Hong Kong as the Asian's wine hub with zero alcohol tax (ethanol ≤30%) since 2008, which causes dramatic increases in alcohol drinking and binge drinking rates. Alcohol use in youth is the leading cause of disability adjusted life-years loss. Most adult drinkers start drinking at age 18-21. Evidence shows that alcohol brief intervention (ABI) is effective reducing hazardous and harmful alcohol use in university students. The proposed trial aims to enhance the ABI by incorporating information communication technologies (ICTs) such as instant messaging (IM) Apps (e.g. WhatsApp and WeChat) to provide personalized, real-time chat-based support led by nurses. The aims of study are as follows: 1. To determine the main effect of the Intervention vs. Control group on alcohol consumption per week at 6-month (Primary) 2. To assess the effects on alcohol consumption per week at 12-month, AUDIT scores at 6 and 12-month, perceived usefulness of IM app at 12-month, intention to use IM app to reduce/quit drinking at 12-month, number of standard drinks, episode of binge drinking, episode of heavy drinking, planned drinking, Academic Role Expectation and Alcohol Scale, Alcohol Problems Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire 4-item, Perceived Stress Scale 4-item, Covid-19 related drinking behavioral changes, and self-efficacy to reduce/quit drinking at 6-month and 12-month 3. To identify mediators between intervention and outcomes to inform the potential mechanisms 4. To qualitatively explore experience on the interventions for reducing alcohol use and related harms

Conditions

• Alcohol Misuse

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Alcohol brief intervention	At baseline, subjects will receive face-to-face or online alcohol brief intervention developed based on the guideline by the World Health Organisation in 5-10 minutes
BEHAVIORAL	12-page health warning leaflet	Nurses will provide information about the consequences of drinking using a 12-page health warning booklet. Benefits of reducing and quit drinking will be emphasized by focusing on improving their perception towards the impacts on health, social problems, risky behaviors, academic performance and financial issues.
BEHAVIORAL	Regular messages through Instant Messaging (IM)	A total of 26 e-messages will be scheduled: once daily for the first week, 3 time/week for subsequent 4 weeks and 1 time/week for the remaining 7 weeks. The frequency will be adjusted according to IM Apps conversation and subject's requests.
BEHAVIORAL	Real-time chat-based support through IM Apps	The chat-based IM support is the extension of baseline ABI and regular e-messages, which aims to provide real-time behavioral and psychosocial support to reduce or quit drinking. It will be personalized according to the subjects' characteristics (gender, drinking pattern and alcoholic drinks preferences), intention to drink and specific questions regarding drinking. Through real-time chatting (text and/or voice), drinkers can acquire information on consequences of drinking and gain social support immediately to reduce intention to drink and alcohol consumption.
BEHAVIORAL	General health through SMS	After baseline, they will receive regular e-message through SMS with similar frequency to Intervention group with content on general health and the reminding the importance of participating in the follow-up surveys.
BEHAVIORAL	AUDIT score interpretation sheet adapted from the Department of Health of Hong Kong	a diagram explaining drinking behaviour and potential health risks, definitions of "alcohol unit" and "binge drinking", and advise on limiting daily drinking to 2 alcohol units for men and 1 unit for women

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-09-30
• Primary completion: 2022-09-30
• Completion: 2022-11-30
• First posted: 2019-07-18
• Last updated: 2021-09-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Hong Kong