Personalized Feedback After Alcohol Health Education for Members of Greek Life (GREEK Study)

NCT05107284 | Unknown Phase 1

• 2 other identifiers: 21-164K01AA023849
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 250
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Heavy episodic alcohol use within the college student population is widespread, creating problems for student drinkers, their peers, and their institutions. Negative consequences from heavy alcohol use can be mild (e.g., hangovers, missed classes), to severe (e.g., assault, even death). Although online interventions targeting college student drinking reduce alcohol consumption and associated problems, they are not as effective as in-person interventions. Online interventions are cost-effective, offer privacy, reduce stigma, and may reach individuals who would otherwise not receive treatment. In a recently completed randomized, controlled trial, an emailed booster with personalized feedback improved the efficacy of a popular online intervention. A second randomized, controlled trial confirmed efficacy for students of legal drinking age for a longer timeline. Although promising, the booster incorporated in the study needs further empirical refinement. The current project seeks to build on past progress by further developing and refining the booster. In particular, the current project is an extension of previous work by expanding the investigation into complete social networks (students involved in Greek life). This booster contains feedback about alcohol use tailored to the recipient, and will be emailed 2, 6, 10, and 14 weeks after baseline (experimental condition), or not at all (control condition). This study will be conducted specifically with students who are members of fraternities or sororities at ODU (specifically, those in the organizations that agree to participate). This population engages in heavy alcohol use so is ideal for an alcohol intervention. Members of fraternities and sororities (i.e., "Greek life") engage in more frequent drinking, consume more when drinking, and have higher peak drinking occasions than students not involved in Greek life. We aim to administer the intervention and associated booster among complete networks of Greek organizations to examine how the intervention and booster and progress through social networks.

Conditions

College Student Drinking

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Alcohol consumption

  Participant self-reported number of standard drinks consumed by participant over a typical week for the past 30 days.

  past 30 days

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Alcohol-Related Consequences

  past 30 days

Study Arms (2)

Intervention-only Control

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

Participants navigate through e-checkup to go, the well-established alcohol intervention. Any follow-up emails sent to them later contain only a reminder to participate in follow-up surveys.

Behavioral: e-checkup to go

Intervention plus delayed feedback booster

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants navigate through e-checkup to go, the well-established alcohol intervention, then receive a series of feedback booster emails. It contains a reminder to participate in follow-up surveys, plus personalized feedback based on participant-reported perceived alcohol norms, actual alcohol norms, their own use, and harm reduction strategies.

Behavioral: e-checkup to go; Behavioral: Delayed feedback booster

Interventions

e-checkup to go BEHAVIORAL

The e-checkup to go alcohol program is designed to motivate individuals to reduce their alcohol consumption using personalized information about their own use and risk factors. The program is a combination of several components including alcohol education, personalized feedback, attitude-focused strategies, and skills training. It is self-guided and requires no face-to-face time with an administrator. It provides tailored feedback regarding quantity and frequency of alcohol use, normative comparisons, physical health information, amount and percent of income spent on alcohol, negative consequences feedback, explanation and advice for how to reach their goals, and resources.

Intervention plus delayed feedback booster; Intervention-only Control

Delayed feedback booster BEHAVIORAL

Booster emails will contain normative feedback indicating average consumption for students at the same institution by sex, their perceptions of student drinkers at the same institution, their own reported consumption, and reminders of strategies they can use to protect themselves from alcohol-related harm.

Intervention plus delayed feedback booster

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Participants must be at least 18 years old so that they can legally consent to participate.
• Participants must be an undergraduate student at the host institution and a member of a participating fraternitiy or sorority.

You may not qualify if:

• Under 18 years of age
• Not a member of a participating fraternity or sorority at the host institution.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Abby Braitman: lead
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Old Dominion University

Norfolk, Virginia, 23529, United States

Location

Related Publications (4)

• Braitman AL, Lau-Barraco C. Personalized Boosters After a Computerized Intervention Targeting College Drinking: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2018 Sep;42(9):1735-1747. doi: 10.1111/acer.13815. Epub 2018 Jul 11.

  PMID: 29995326 BACKGROUND

• Braitman AL, Henson JM. Personalized boosters for a computerized intervention targeting college drinking: The influence of protective behavioral strategies. J Am Coll Health. 2016 Oct;64(7):509-19. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2016.1185725. Epub 2016 May 5.

  PMID: 27148633 BACKGROUND

• Braitman AL, Strowger M, Lau-Barraco C, Shipley JL, Kelley ML, Carey KB. Examining the added value of harm reduction strategies to emailed boosters to extend the effects of online interventions for college drinkers. Psychol Addict Behav. 2022 Sep;36(6):635-647. doi: 10.1037/adb0000755. Epub 2021 Jun 3.

  PMID: 34081487 BACKGROUND

• Braitman AL, Shipley JL, Strowger M, Ayala Guzman R, Whiteside A, Bravo AJ, Carey KB. Examining Emailed Feedback as Boosters After a College Drinking Intervention Among Fraternities and Sororities: Rationale and Protocol for a Remote Controlled Trial (Project Greek). JMIR Res Protoc. 2022 Oct 28;11(10):e42535. doi: 10.2196/42535.

  PMID: 36306162 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Alcohol Drinking in College

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Alcohol Drinking; Drinking Behavior; Behavior

Study Officials

• Abby L Braitman, Ph.D.

  Old Dominion University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: phase 1
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Masking Details: The intervention is an online program, not an individual administering it, so masking is not necessary. Similarly, the same online survey is deployed in all follow-up assessments regardless of condition, and data are not collected by individuals, so masking of investigators is not necessary.
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Assistant Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 25, 2021
• First Posted: November 4, 2021
• Study Start: April 6, 2022
• Primary Completion: December 8, 2022
• Study Completion: May 31, 2023
• Last Updated: May 3, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-04

Locations

US (1)