New Project - A Randomised Controlled Trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the Drink Less app at reducing alcohol consumption

Colin Angus

Drink Less is a smartphone app targeted at increasing and high risk drinkers - people who are exceeding the current UK drinking guidelines. The Drink Less app aims to support people cutting down their drinking using evidence and theory from behavioural science. Evidence from a pilot trial is promising and this new randomised controlled trial (RCT) will establish the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the app compared to referring patients to the NHS web pages on alcohol. The trial aims to recruit over 5,500 participants from across the UK and the main outcome will be self-reported changes in alcohol consumption after six months.

Colin Angus is leading the long term modelling of costs and health outcomes based on the results of the randomised controlled trial (RCT).

This project is funded by the NIHR (https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR127651) and led by researchers at UCL. The study also involves researchers from Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle Universities and Public Health England.

Colin, a co-investigator on the study, said: “Levels of alcohol-related harm in the UK are rising, and effective interventions which can help reduce the drinking of heavier drinkers will contribute to addressing this increase and also the burden that this harm places on the NHS.”

This project builds on previous research where we have used the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model to estimate the long-term costs and health outcomes of face-to-face interventions designed to help heavier drinkers reduce their alcohol consumption.
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cky181   http://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckw122