Comparison of automated technologies to deliver brief alcohol interventions to university students : a randomized controlled trial

New technologies have previously been used to deliver alcohol interventions to university students. In this study automated interventions delivered by Interactive Voice Response (IVR) are compared to automated interventions delivered over the Internet (WEB). A total of 2 825 Swedish university students responded to a web-survey assessing risky alcohol consumption using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). A total of 1 423 (50%) had a risky alcohol consumption and were randomized to one out of four different intervention conditions: a single IVR or WEB intervention given one week after baseline; a repeated IVR or WEB intervention given one and two weeks after intervention, or to an untreated control group. Each intervention was really short including less than 500 words, giving a brief feedback on the baseline assessment and instructions on how obtain a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) below 0,06 percentage. Follow-up of intervention results were assessed six weeks after the baseline assessment. At follow-up all intervention groups had significantly reduced their AUDIT scores in comparison to the control group. The reduction in AUDIT scores did not differ between IVR and WEB interventions, and there was no difference between single and repeated interventions. This study indicates that IVR and WEB interventions are equally effective in delivering brief alcohol interventions to university students, and that there is no additional effect by repeating the intervention