Alcohol Brief Intervention Integrated With Mobile Chat-based Support for Risky Drinkers in Emergency Departments

NCT ID: NCT05018624

Last Updated: 2025-08-01

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

632 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2022-05-23

Study Completion Date

2025-03-31

Brief Summary

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This study aims to assess the effectiveness of chat-based intervention on reducing risky alcohol consumption to inform clinical practice for providing ABI to risky drinkers attending AED in Hong Kong.

Detailed Description

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Alcohol use is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases and 6th leading cause of death and disability-adjusted life years. The prevalence of alcohol consumption has increased since 2008 after introduction of zero tax on alcohol with strength \<30% (e.g., wine and beer) and due to promoting the city as Asia's wine hub. ABI reduced alcohol intake by about 20g/week at 12-month follow-up in primary healthcare populations. Given the relatively low prevalence of risky alcohol drinkers in Hong Kong, testing ABI in clinics may face difficulties in recruitment. Alcohol use is associated with problems such as injury and violence requiring accident and emergency department (AED) services, thus AEDs in Hong Kong are more feasible places to recruit subjects for delivering ABI.

Primary hypothesis: The Intervention group has significantly larger reduction of weekly alcohol consumption compared with the Control group at 12-month follow-up

Secondary hypotheses: Compared with the Control group, the Intervention group has lower AUDIT scores, fewer episodes of heavy/binge drinking, lower re-attendence at AED and reduced alcohol-related harms at 6-month and 12-month follow-up.

Conditions

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Alcohol Misuse

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

DOUBLE

Investigators Outcome Assessors

Study Groups

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Intervention group

Alcohol brief intervention, leaflets, regular personalized messages on ABI through IM Apps, real-time chat-based support through IM Apps

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Alcohol brief intervention

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

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

12-page health warning leaflet

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

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.

Regular messages through Instant Messaging (IM)

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

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.

Real-time chat-based support through IM Apps

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

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.

AUDIT score interpretation sheet adapted from the Department of Health of Hong Kong

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

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

control group

Alcohol brief intervention, leaflets, regular messages on general health through SMS

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Alcohol brief intervention

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

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

12-page health warning leaflet

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

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.

AUDIT score interpretation sheet adapted from the Department of Health of Hong Kong

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

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

Interventions

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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

Intervention Type 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.

Intervention Type 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.

Intervention Type 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.

Intervention Type 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

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* HK resident able to read/communicate in Cantonese/Putonghua. This may exclude potential subjects from other countries with higher alcohol consumption than local Chinese, but quality of the chat-based intervention is important for the research hypothesis, and it will not be feasible to recruit other language speakers (e.g., English) in the present study.
* Aged ≥18 with proficiency in using IM Apps (e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat). Those aged \<18 are excluded as other studies suggest they have different patterns of alcohol drinking and reduction from adult drinkers.

Exclusion Criteria

* Those unable to understand or receive face-to-face ABI due to severe traumatic injury, unconscious, or drunk patients unable to follow commands
* Anticipated to be admitted to in-patient department for \>1 week, which will interfere with the chat-based intervention
* Having psychiatric/psychological diseases or receiving regular psychotropic medication
* Participating in other alcohol reduction or abstinence programmes
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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The University of Hong Kong

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Dr. Wang Man-Ping

Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong, , Hong Kong

Site Status

Countries

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Hong Kong

Other Identifiers

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Chat-based ABI (AED)

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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