Emailed boosters after online interventions can help college and university students cut back on excessive drinking

Newswise — Alcohol consumption is known to be pervasive and problematic among college and university student populations. New research has found that while online interventions alone can effectively help a typical student cut back on excessive drinking, emailed boosters after online interventions may be needed for heavier drinking students. These results and others will be shared at the 46^th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) in Bellevue, Washington.

“Institution-provided computer-delivered interventions to address drinking are cost-effective, far-reaching, and widely used,” said Abby L. Braitman, assistant professor of psychology at Old Dominion University. “However, they are not as effective as meeting face-to-face with a counselor, and effects tend to erode after about two to three months. Post-intervention boosters may be able to address the reduced efficacy of online interventions, but prior work has demonstrated their inconsistent success for maintaining reductions in college drinking. We investigated for whom boosters are most effective.”

Braitman will discuss her findings at the RSA meeting on Wednesday, 28 June 2023.

Study participants comprised 528 college drinkers who answered survey questions regarding their beliefs and behaviors regarding drinking, and were then randomly assigned to receive either a computer-delivered intervention (CDI) only or CDI+booster. Participants in the latter group received their booster two weeks post-intervention. The pre-intervention online survey as well as two post-intervention surveys – at one and three months following the CDI – assessed alcohol consumption and related problems.

“Boosters for this study were personalized feedback sent via email, reminding participants of some of their survey responses, and correcting some of their misperceptions,” said Braitman. “This method can capitalize on existing infrastructures because universities already have email lists for all students. Further, because the survey is completed online and the feedback is automatically generated, using this approach does not require any additional staff positions.”

The lighter drinkers maintained reductions in drinking and related problems whether or not they received a booster. Conversely, heavier drinkers who received the booster demonstrated continued reductions in alcohol-related problems compared to those who did not, the latter instead exhibiting a mild increase in alcohol-related problems that creeped back up to pre-intervention levels.

“For lighter drinkers, the intervention was effective on its own,” observed Braitman. “It was easier for them to develop and maintain lighter drinking habits. For heavier drinkers, it was likely difficult to make these changes longer term. Their social environments likely involve heavier drinking. Many studies show that heavy drinkers tend to socialize and drink with other heavy drinkers, so they had more of an uphill battle for maintaining drinking reductions. I think the boosters helped them remember why they wanted to cut back and provided strategies for how they could do it.”

Braitman added that these findings highlight an important way to improve online interventions for college drinking. “For those students who were heavier drinkers before the intervention, a booster deployed a few weeks after the intervention is both easy – sent via email through an automated process – and effective,” she said. “Continued research to identify the most-at-risk students for college drinking, and additional ways to tailor and adapt interventions to make them most effective for everyone, must continue.”

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Braitman will present these findings, “Emailed boosters after computer-delivered interventions extend maintenance for heavier college drinkers,” during the RSA 2023 meeting in Bellevue, Washington on Wednesday, 28 June 2022. More information can be found at RSoA on Twitter @RSAposts.