College Student Daily Life and Alcohol Use Study

NCT ID: NCT06365125

Last Updated: 2025-01-22

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 129 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-03-22
• Study Completion Date: 2025-05-01

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.

Conditions

Drinking, College; Drinking Heavy

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Assessment Only

Assessment only condition, no intervention material delivered to this group

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Intervention (BAI) Only

Only the brief alcohol intervention, eCHECKUP TO GO, is administered to this group

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

eCHECKUP TO GO

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Single session, web-based intervention for college students aimed at increasing awareness of consequences related to heavy alcohol use and increase motivation to modify one's alcohol use.

Enhanced Intervention

Brief alcohol intervention, eCHECKUP TO GO, + 4 weeks of text messaging boosters (Monday, Thursday-Sunday)

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

eCHECKUP TO GO

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Single session, web-based intervention for college students aimed at increasing awareness of consequences related to heavy alcohol use and increase motivation to modify one's alcohol use.

Text messaging boosters

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Text messages sent a few times per week following completion of eCHECKUP TO GO to reinforce concepts and assist with goal setting and goal attainment in everyday life

Interventions

eCHECKUP TO GO

Single session, web-based intervention for college students aimed at increasing awareness of consequences related to heavy alcohol use and increase motivation to modify one's alcohol use.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Text messaging boosters

Text messages sent a few times per week following completion of eCHECKUP TO GO to reinforce concepts and assist with goal setting and goal attainment in everyday life

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

eCHUG (former name)

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

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 30 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Boston University Charles River Campus

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Bonnie Rowland, MA

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Boston University Charles River Campus

Locations

Boston University Charles River Campus

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

7313E

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id