Comparing the Efficacy of Several Popular Online Interventions to Reduce Hazardous Alcohol Consumption

Comparing the Efficacy of Several Popular Online Interventions to Reduce Hazardous Alcohol Consumption: Randomized Controlled Trial

There are a number of popular, freely available online interventions targeting hazardous alcohol consumption. Unfortunately, most have limited or no published evidence regarding their efficacy. Of particular interest is the intervention, 'Hello Sunday Morning.' The current project proposes to evaluate its' efficacy employing a RCT, using The Check Your Drinking intervention as an active comparator in the trial.

Participants will be recruited through Amazon's MTurk crowdsourcing platform. Potential participants identified as problem drinkers based on an initial survey will be invited to complete another survey in 6 months time. Those who agree to be followed-up will be assigned by chance to be asked versus not asked to access one of the interventions and then recontacted 6 months later to ask about their drinking and their impressions of the online intervention. The primary hypothesis to be tested is that participants receiving access to any of the online interventions will report a greater level of reduction in number of drinks in a typical week between the baseline survey and six-month follow-up as compared to participants in the control condition.

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or over
• A score of 8 or over on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)
• Typically consumes 15 or more drinks per week,
• Willingness to complete a 6-month follow-up survey

Exclusion Criteria: None