New Smartphone App Helps College Students Reduce Alcohol Consumption, Study Finds
A new smartphone app has been found to significantly reduce alcohol consumption among college students, according to a recent study conducted by international researchers. The specially-designed app, called Smaart, monitors drinking habits and provides personalized feedback and support to promote responsible drinking.
Unhealthy alcohol consumption is a major health risk, particularly for individuals between the ages of 15 and 49. College students, in particular, are prone to excessive drinking, which led to the development of this app as a tool to help them cut back on alcohol intake.
During the study, 1,770 students from four Swiss universities who were identified as having unhealthy alcohol habits participated in the project. These students reported an average weekly consumption of 8.59 standard alcoholic drinks and engaged in heavy drinking on 3.53 days per month.
The participants were divided into two groups: the intervention group and the comparison group. The intervention group was asked to download the Smaart app and were rewarded with a gift voucher for doing so. The comparison group, on the other hand, received a gift voucher for completing the initial questionnaire but did not receive any assistance or support to reduce their drinking.
Over the course of a year, the intervention group reported a 10% reduction in their weekly alcohol intake and an 11% decrease in heavy drinking days compared to the comparison group.
The app offered a range of features including personalized feedback on drinking habits, estimated blood alcohol content, a self-monitoring tool, goal setting, a designated driver selector, and informational fact sheets on the health impact of alcohol. The intervention group accessed the app an average of 21.2 times over the year, with some individuals using it as many as 403 times.
The study has its limitations, such as the potential under-reporting of alcohol intake due to self-reporting by the students. It is also possible that some students from the comparison group accessed the app indirectly through their friends.
However, the researchers believe that this app-based intervention is a resource-efficient approach as it does not require hiring trained professionals or dedicated campus spaces. As a result of the study’s success, a version of the app has been made freely available for both Apple and Android smartphones.
While the findings of the study are promising, the researchers stress that app interventions alone are not a complete solution to reducing harmful alcohol use. This is especially important when considering international targets, such as the World Health Organization’s goal of a 20% reduction in harmful alcohol use by 2030.
The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence supports the idea of digital and mobile health interventions as part of existing services to tackle alcohol consumption.
In conclusion, the use of a smartphone app called Smaart has been shown to be an effective tool in reducing alcohol consumption among college students. By providing personalized feedback and support, the app helped students lower their alcohol intake and reduce the frequency of heavy drinking days. Further research and a multifaceted approach are needed to address the issue of harmful alcohol use and achieve global health goals.
