Clinical trial NCT06365125: College Student Daily Life and Alcohol Use Study
Official title: Enhancing Computer-delivered Approaches to Reduce Heavy/Hazardous Alcohol Use Among College Students
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Drinking, College
Drinking Heavy
Keywords: heavy alcohol use
college student
brief alcohol intervention
Lead sponsor: Boston University Charles River Campus
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2024-04-15
Enrollment: 129
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 30
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: 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.


Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Heavy drinking episodes
timeFrame: assessed at baseline and 3-month follow-up
measure: Alcohol-related negative consequences
timeFrame: assessed at baseline and 3-month follow-up
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: Boston University Charles River Campus
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: Boston University Charles River Campus
name: Bonnie Rowland, MA
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: