Check Your Drinking

Description:

Check Your Drinking is a brief online assessment of alcohol use. Users answer a series of questions to collect basic demographic data and information on alcohol consumption, drinking behaviour, and alcohol-related consequences. After answering the questions, personalised feedback is immediately presented. This feedback includes a comparison of an individual’s drinking with normative data, an estimate of the costs of alcohol, the chance of experiencing negative consequences associated with drinking and the risk of alcohol related harm, information about the amount of money spent on alcohol, graphic representation of heavy drinking days, and caloric intake associated with alcohol consumption. Sensible drinking guidelines are supplied as well as information about the health effects of alcohol and steps to reduce risk. This feedback summary can be emailed to the participant if desired. The program has also been adapted for university populations.

Service URL:

http://www.alcoholhelpcenter.net/

Agency Responsible:

Evolution Health Systems Inc.

Details

Format:

Website.

Intervention Type:

Educational (primarily educational material or psychoeducation). Includes personalised feedback

Course Length:

Short (less than 1 module or equivalent).

Support Option:

No support.

Target Audience

Primary Category:

Alcohol.

Target Audience:

Adult. Targets problem drinkers

Languages:

English, French and Spanish. Also available in Portuguese

Access

Fee:

Free.

Access:

Open: No registration required.

Contact Details:

bizdev@evolutionhs.com

Research evidence

Research Trials:

7

Research RCTs:

3

Outcome Summary:

There have been six trials examining CYD, a component of the Alcohol Help Centre. Two randomised controlled trials (RCT) examined the effectiveness of CYD in reducing alcohol consumption, and one RCT measured the efficacy of different CYD feedback reports. Two trials have compared CYD to a web-based education website, and one trial evaluated alcohol consumption 3 months after CYD.

 

The efficacy of Check Your Drinking (CYD) was tested in a RCT of 185 participants who reported at risk for hazardous drinking (2). The CYD intervention was compared to an information only control. Results showed that the CYD intervention group had a 30% reduction in weekly drinking (6-7 drinks) at 3 months after the intervention, compared to a 1 drink reduction in the control group. This reduction was maintained at 6 months (6 drinks fewer than baseline) but not at 12 months, where the difference between the intervention and control groups was no longer apparent (3).

 

An RCT evaluated the efficacy of CYD delivered in the workplace to 124 young adults aged 18 to 24 years (5). This trial compared CYD to CYD plus a 15-minute motivational interviewing session, and to a control group. Results showed that participants receiving the CYD intervention reported significantly lower levels of drinking than those in a control group at a 30-day follow-up. Results suggest that the addition of the 15-minute motivational interviewing session did not increase the efficacy of the CYD intervention. Further, the CYD intervention was most effective in reducing drinking for young adults who reported high-risk drinking at the baseline assessment.

 

A study aimed at identifying the effective components of the CYD feedback report, compared a normative feedback report and a personalised feedback report to the full CYD report and a control group (1). A total of 741 adults aged 19 years or older, who reported hazardous drinking and who drank above the recommended Canadian guidelines, were randomly assigned into one of four groups. At 3 months participants who received the full CYD report consumed a significanlty lower number of drinks in one week compared to the control group. No difference was reported between the CYD and control group on hazardous drinking scores.

 

A three month follow-up of participants who completed the CYD program compared alcohol consumption to baseline (4). Participants who agreed to be followed up, and continued to drink alcohol three months after completing CYD were invited to complete the survey. Results from 81 respondents showed a significant reduction in alcohol consumption compared to baseline. People who perceived less risk from alcohol consumption compared to baseline reported greatest alcohol reduction. Due to the lack of a control group, reductions in drinking can not be directly contributed to CYD.

 

The efficacy of CYD has been evaluated in an uncontrolled study. A total of 76 students who were referred to Counseling Services for an alcohol related incident, were randomly assigned to CYD  or a web-based education site (7). At a 30-day follow-up, participants allocated to CYD reported significantly greater reductions in weekly drinking quantity, peak alcohol consumption, and frequency of drinking to intoxication compared to participants allocated to the education site. A similar study evaluated the efficacy of CYD among 52 university athletes (6). Participants in the CYD condition reported significantly greater reductions in drinking, and changes in beliefs about peer drinking, compared to participants in the web-based education condition.

 

An additional uncontrolled (pilot) study (8) compared CYD to an extended intervention, Alcohol Help Centre (AHC) (N=170). Participants randomised to  AHC showed  significantly greater reductions in alcohol use at 6 months compared to those receiving CYD. A larger-scale (N=480) trial comparing CYD and AHC is currently underway, utilising a longer follow-up period of 2 years post-intervention (9).  

 

Overall there is currently good evidence to suggest that CYD reduces alcohol consumption in problem drinkers.

Recommended rating, reviewer 1:

Recommended rating, reviewer 2:

Read more about Beacon's Smiley Rating System.

Research paper citations

(1) Cunningham, J.A., Murphy, M., & Hendershot, C. S. (2015). Treatment dismantling pilot study to identify the active ingredients in personalized feedback interventions for hazardous alcohol use: randomized controlled trial. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 10(1), 1-5.

(2) Cunningham, J.A., Wild, T.C., Cordingley, J., van Mierlo, T., & Humphreys, K. (2009). A randomized controlled trial of an internet-based intervention for alcohol abusers. Addiction, 104(12), 2023-2032.

(3) Cunningham, J.A., Wild, T.C., Cordingley, J., van Mierlo, T., & Humphreys, K. (2010). Twelve month follow-up results from a randomized controlled trial of a brief personalized feedback intervention for problem drinkers. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 45(3), 258-262. 

(4) Cunningham, J. A., Humpheys, K., Kypri, K., & van Mierlo, T. (2006). Formative evaluation and three-month follow-up of an online personalized assessment feedback intervention for problem drinkers. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(2), e5.

(5) Doumas, D. M., & Hannah, E. (2008). Preventing high-risk drinking in youth in the workplace: a web-based normative feedback program. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 34(3), 263-271.

(6) Doumas, D. M., & Haustveit, T. (2008). Reducing heavy drinking in intercollegiate athletes: evaluation of a web-based personalized feedback program. The Sport Psychologist, 22, 212-228.

(7) Doumas, D. M., McKinley, L. L., & Book, P. (2009). Evaluation of two web-based alcohol interventions for mandated college students. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 36(1), 65-74.

(8) Cunningham, J. A. (2012). "Comparison of two internet-based interventions for problem drinkers: randomized controlled trial." J Med Internet Res 14(4): e107.

(9) Cunningham, J. A., et al. (2015). "Randomized controlled trial of a minimal versus extended Internet-based intervention for problem drinkers: study protocol." BMC Public Health 15(1): 21.

Additional References:

Cunningham, J. A., Selby, P., & van Mierlo, T. (2006). Integrated online services for smokers and drinkers? Use of the Check Your Drinking assessment screener by participants of the Stop Smoking Center. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 8(Supplement 1), S21-S25.

Cunningham, J. A., & van Mierlo, T. (2009). Methodological issues in the evaluation of internet-based interventions for problem drinking. Drug and Alcohol Review, 28(1), 12-17.

Cunningham, J.A., Wild, T.C. and Humphreys, K. (2011) Who uses online interventions for problem drinkers? Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 41: 261-264.