Brief Psychological Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Consumption

NCT07686276 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: FHM-2024-4354-RECR-4
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 228
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Continuous levels of hazardous alcohol consumption (i.e., 14 or more units per week) is one of the leading risk factors of ill health and early mortality, contributing to around 9,809 deaths a year in the UK. The aim of the present research is to test the effect of helping people to reward themselves when they have successfully reduced/abstained from their previous levels of alcohol consumption. Each participant will be randomly allocated to one of two conditions. The trial requires 128 participants to perform a fully powered statistical analysis. The two conditions include: (1) a control condition (asked to form a plan to reduce/abstain from alcohol consumption), or (2) a weekly self-incentivising condition (asked to reward themselves at the end of each week that they have successfully reduced/abstained their previous levels of alcohol consumption). The main outcome measure will be units of alcohol consumed/not consumed, which will be self-reported at 1-week and 1-month follow-up time points.

Conditions

Health Behavior

Keywords

Behavioral: Self-incentive

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Alcohol consumption

  Total units of alcohol consumed in last week

  Up to 1-month

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT)

  Up to 1- month

• Compliance to self-incentivise

  Up to 1-month

• Frequency of self-incentivisation

  Up to 1-month

• Self-incentives used

  Up to 1-month

Study Arms (2)

Behavioural: Self-incentive

EXPERIMENTAL

Weekly self-incentivising

Behavioral: Self-incentive

Plan

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Control

Behavioral: Plan

Interventions

Self-incentive BEHAVIORAL

Participants read a brief statement designed to encourage them to reduce/abstain from alcohol consumption (we would like you to plan to reduce/abstain your alcohol consumption). Participants are then asked to specify a self-incentive on which they could implement at the end of each week which they have been successful.

Behavioural: Self-incentive

Plan BEHAVIORAL

Participants read a brief statement designed to encourage them to reduce/abstain from alcohol consumption (we would like you to plan to reduce/abstain your alcohol consumption). Participants are then asked to form their plan.

Plan

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Aged 18 years or over
• Able to understand written English
• Competent to provide informed consent
• Residing in the UK
• Regularly consuming 14 units of alcohol or more at baseline

You may not qualify if:

• Note aged 18 years old or over
• Not able to understand written English
• Not competent to provide informed consent
• Not residing in the UK
• Not regularly consuming 14 units of alcohol or more at baseline

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Lancaster University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Lancaster University

Lancaster, United Kingdom

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Health Behavior

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Dr Emma Brown

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 30, 2026
• First Posted: July 7, 2026
• Study Start: May 20, 2026
• Primary Completion: June 21, 2026
• Study Completion: June 21, 2026
• Last Updated: July 7, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-06

Locations

GB (1)