Funded projects

Alcohol-related harm is a major public health problem. Disadvantaged men are at a greatly increased risk of experiencing alcohol-related harm. This study will develop an intervention to reduce alcohol-related problems among young to middle-aged disadvantaged men. The intervention will involve a series of interactive text messages with images sent to mobile phones. Ownership of mobile phones is very high and younger people regularly send and respond to text messages, making mobile phones an attractive method of delivering interventions.

The intervention has been developed from research findings on successful approaches to modifying adverse health behaviours. It also uses theories from psychology and employs the latest computer technology to deliver the intervention. It will increase awareness of the harms and will help the men to realise that they really are at risk of these harms. It will also increase their confidence in their ability to refuse a drink.

The study will address the challenge of recruiting and retaining young to middle-aged disadvantaged men in a controlled trial. It will also determine whether the intervention will engage the participants and encourage them to change their drinking behaviour. If successful the study will lead to a full-scale controlled trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the intervention. This two stage approach to developing and testing the intervention is recommended for this type of study.

The study will take 21 months to complete and will involve three phases. Phase 1 will comprise six focus groups during which the recruitment strategy and the intervention will be developed. Phase 2 will test all aspects of a controlled trial, particularly the recruitment strategy and the extent of engagement of the participants with the intervention. Participants in phase 2 will be interviewed by phone at baseline and at three months to assess changes in frequency of heavy drinking and attitudes and intentions about drinking. Phase 3 will explore whether improvements could be made to the intervention using a sub-group of those who took part in Phase 2.

The intervention is unlikely to raise ethical issues as it has been tested in other settings.

The study has been designed and will be conducted by an experienced team comprising an epidemiologist, a psychologist, a social scientist, a computer scientist, a statistician and clinical trials expert, a GP and a consultant psychiatrist who leads an alcohol service. They have successfully carried out many studies which have tested the effectiveness of interventions designed to change adverse health behaviours.

Alcohol-related harm is a major public health problem. Disadvantaged men are at a greatly increased risk of experiencing alcohol-related harm. This study will develop an intervention to reduce alcohol-related problems among young to middle-aged disadvantaged men. The intervention will involve a series of interactive text messages with images sent to mobile phones. Ownership of mobile phones is very high and younger people regularly send and respond to text messages, making mobile phones an attractive method of delivering interventions.

The intervention has been developed using messaging theory, imaging theory, social cognition models and reviews of interventions to tackle alcohol problems. A series of interactive text messages and images will be delivered by text messages to mobile phones. The intervention has four components: to increase awareness of and perceived risk of experiencing alcohol-related harm; to modify the balance between perceived benefits and harms of alcohol; to address misperceptions about alcohol consumption by peers; and to increase the ability to refuse drinks. Each component of the intervention will be addressed by several text messages. The control group will receive the same number text messages and images. These will cover the general health promotion messages from current government public health policy.

This feasibility study will address the challenge of recruiting and retaining young to middle-aged disadvantaged men in a controlled trial. It will also determine whether the intervention will engage the participants and encourage them to change their drinking behaviour. If successful the study will lead to a full-scale controlled trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the intervention.

The study will take 21 months to complete and will involve three phases. Phase 1 will comprise six focus groups during which the recruitment strategy and the intervention will be developed. Phase 2 will test all aspects of a controlled trial, particularly the recruitment strategy and the extent of engagement of the participants with the intervention. Participants in phase 2 will be interviewed by telephone at baseline and at three months to assess changes in frequency of heavy drinking and attitudes and intentions about drinking. Phase 3 will involve in-depth interviews with a sub-group of those who took part in Phase 2 to explore whether improvements could be made to the intervention.