Clinical trial NCT02187887: Online Program for Young Adult Veteran Drinkers
Official title: Brief Online Intervention to Reduce Heavy Alcohol Use Among Young Adult Veterans
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: AOD Misuse
AOD Associated Consequences
Keywords: alcohol
young adult veterans
brief intervention
online
perceived norms
Lead sponsor: RAND
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
First posted: 2014-07-11
Enrollment: 793
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 34
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The primary objective of the research study is to test the feasibility of a brief Internet-based intervention to reduce heavy alcohol use among young adult veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans are recruited through the social media website Facebook in two phases. In the first phase, investigators collect data from 800 veteran participants to document and analyze drinking norms in this population. In the second phase, investigators use the norms collected in Phase 1 and information from the analyses to develop and pilot test an online intervention with young adult veteran participants. Six hundred participants are recruited through Facebook and randomly assigned to intervention (N = 300) or control (N = 300) conditions. It is hypothesized that those in the intervention condition will drink less at a one-month follow-up period than those in the control condition. Investigators also collect feedback from participants on the usability of the online intervention.

Detailed description: This study was conducted in two phases with the main goal of developing and testing a very brief online program to reduce heavy alcohol use among young adult veterans in the United States.

In the first phase, we examined how the social media website Facebook could be used to reach veterans in the community for the intervention effort. Although veterans are an at-risk group for heavy drinking and mental health problems, few seek care. Thus, we were able to document that targeted Facebook advertisements can be used to reach out to veterans and provide them with an alcohol reduction program that they likely would not have received otherwise.

In the second phase, we used the data we collected from participants in the first phase to develop a personalized normative feedback intervention. This intervention was very brief and online, and showed young veterans information to correct their misperceptions about the drinking behavior of their peers. For example, in the intervention, young veterans would be asked how much they believe other veterans like themselves drink alcohol. Then, they would view information about veterans like themselves that showed them that other veterans do not drink as much as they think they do. This is important because much research has documented that perceptions about how much others drink is a major factor contributing to how much one drinks themselves. Thus, correcting these misperceptions has been a primary strategy for reducing drinking among young people. These norms correction strategies have mostly been tested with college students or other non-veteran young adult groups, and when they have been tested with veterans they have been tested within much lengthier, multicomponent interventions. Our study was the first to test the norms correction strategy alone with young veterans using an online design meant to reach veterans in the community through recruitment on Facebook.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

1. United States veteran from Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or Operation New Dawn who has been discharged or separated from the Army, Navy, Marines, or Air Force and is not currently in the reserves
2. between the ages of 18 and 34
3. the ability to read English (also a requirement of military service)
4. access to a computer and the Internet
5. has an email address 6) an AUDIT score of \>4 (men) or \>3 (women) in order to reach those who may benefit from an intervention targeted toward reducing alcohol misuse

Exclusion Criteria:

* None besides not meeting inclusion criteria

Primary outcomes:
measure: Alcohol Use
timeFrame: Past month (30 days)
measure: Alcohol-related Consequences
timeFrame: Past month (30 days)
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Santa Monica
country: United States
facility: RAND
state: California
Study officials:
affiliation: RAND
name: Eric R Pedersen, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Pedersen ER, Marshall GN, Schell TL. Study protocol for a web-based personalized normative feedback alcohol intervention for young adult veterans. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2016 Mar 31;11(1):6. doi: 10.1186/s13722-016-0055-8.
citation: Pedersen ER, Helmuth ED, Marshall GN, Schell TL, PunKay M, Kurz J. Using facebook to recruit young adult veterans: online mental health research. JMIR Res Protoc. 2015 Jun 1;4(2):e63. doi: 10.2196/resprot.3996.