BACKGROUND: Young adults' drinking habits commonly exceed recommendations for low risk drinking. Exceeding these guidelines may have a negative effect on young adults' mental, social, and physical health. As smartphones are highly accessible to young adults, mobile applications could be used to support them to develop low-risk drinking habits and to improve their general health. We designed a study protocol for the evaluation of a self-guided mobile application based on healthy lifestyle-related components that aim to develop and maintain low-risk drinking habits among young adults. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Boozebuster, a mobile phone-based app on drinking behavior in young adults. METHODS: This is a two-arm, parallel group randomized controlled trial to investigate whether a 6-week self-guided mobile intervention (Boozebuster) targeting drinking behavior is more effective than a minimal intervention consisting of an educational website on the effects and consequences of drinking. To assess the effectiveness of Boozebuster we will recruit 506 young adults aged between 18 and 30 years via an open recruitment strategy in the Netherlands from an open access website. All outcomes are self-assessed through questionnaires. The primary outcome is the quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption in standard drinks (10g ethanol per standard drink) per month (TLFB). Secondary outcomes include binge-drinking sessions per month, alcohol-related problem severity (RAPI), cannabis use frequency and quantity in grams (TLFB), depressive symptoms (CES-D), perceived stress (PSS), engagement (TWEETS), readiness to change (RCQ), mental wellbeing (WEMBIS), trauma and COVID-related trauma (PCL-5-SF), impulsivity (UPPS-P), study and work performance (IWPQ), and treatment adherence. The assessments will be conducted at baseline, 6-week (post-baseline), and 3-months post-baseline, and will be analyzed on the basis of the intention-to-treat principle using multilevel mixed modelling analyses. RESULTS: Our study began recruitment in November 2020. We received 933 registrations on our study information website. From these registrations, 506 participants have completed the baseline assessment, 336 participants have completed the 6-week post-baseline assessment (T1), and 308 participants have completed the 3-month post-baseline assessment (T2). The study is still in progress. Results will be reported in 2021 and 2022. CONCLUSIONS: Self-guided mobile interventions based on a lifestyle approach might be an attractive approach for young adults due to their preference on self-reliance, healthy living, and increased perceived anonymity. This type of intervention are yet understudied while it is known that interventions addressing solely problem drinking are less appealing to young adults. We hypothesize that the Boozebuster mobile application will effectively reduce drinking levels compared to a brief alcohol educational website condition. If effective, our intervention could be an inexpensive and scalable public health intervention to improve drinking habits in young adults. CLINICALTRIAL: Trial registration: www.trialregister.nl/trial/8828.
A Mobile Intervention to Promote Low-risk Drinking Habits in Young Adults: Study Protocol for A Randomized Controlled Trial