scholarly journals Photography-based mobile assessment of alcohol use in young adults: Feasibility and comparison to standard assessment methodology (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tera L Fazzino ◽  
Corby Martin ◽  
Kelsie Forbush
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Caloric Intake ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Standard Assessment ◽  
Heavy Alcohol Use ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND Heavy alcohol use is prevalent among young adults and may contribute to obesity. However, measurement tools for assessing caloric intake from alcohol are limited and rely on self-report, which is prone to biases. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the pilot study was to conduct feasibility testing of SmartIntake®, a photo-based smartphone app, to assess alcohol use among young adults. Aims consisted of 1) quantifying the ability of SmartIntake® to capture drinking behavior; 2) assessing app usability with the Computer System Usability Questionnaire (CSUQ); 3) conducting a qualitative interview; and 4) comparing preference, compliance, and alcohol use estimates (calories, grams per drinking episode) between SmartIntake® and online diet recalls that participants completed for a parent study. METHODS College students (N=15) who endorsed a pattern of heavy drinking were recruited from a larger study examining the impact of drinking on weight. Participants used SmartIntake® to send photographs of all alcohol and food intake over a three-day period, and then completed a follow up interview and the CSUQ. CSUQ items range from 1-7, with lower scores indicating greater usability. Total number of drinking occasions was determined by adding the number of drinking occasions captured by SmartIntake® plus the number of drinking occasions participants reported that they missed capturing. Compliance was defined by the number of days participants provided food/beverage photo data through the app, or the number of diet recalls completed. RESULTS The SmartIntake® app captured 13 of 15 (87%) drinking occasions. Participants rated the app as highly usable in the CSUQ (M= 2.28). Most participants (93%) preferred using SmartIntake® vs. recalls and compliance was significantly higher with SmartIntake® than recalls (93% vs 78%; P= .04). Alcohol grams and calories per drinking occasion were not significantly different between the two methods (P values range .25-.99); however triple the number of participants submitted alcohol reports with SmartIntake® compared to the diet recalls (SmartIntake® 9/15 vs recalls 3/15; P=.06). CONCLUSIONS SmartIntake® was well accepted by college students who drink heavily and captured most drinking occasions. Participants had higher compliance with SmartIntake® compared to diet recalls and triple the number of participants reported alcohol use with SmartIntake®, suggesting this method may be well suited to assessing alcohol use in young adults.

scholarly journals The Remote Food Photography Method and SmartIntake App for the Assessment of Alcohol Use in Young Adults: Feasibility Study and Comparison to Standard Assessment Methodology

10.2196/10460 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. e10460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tera L Fazzino ◽  
Corby K Martin ◽  
Kelsie Forbush
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Caloric Intake ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Food Photography ◽  
Photography Method

Background Heavy drinking is prevalent among young adults and may contribute to obesity. However, measurement tools for assessing caloric intake from alcohol are limited and rely on self-report, which is prone to bias. Objective The purpose of our study was to conduct feasibility testing of the Remote Food Photography Method and the SmartIntake app to assess alcohol use in young adults. Aims consisted of (1) quantifying the ability of SmartIntake to capture drinking behavior, (2) assessing app usability with the Computer System Usability Questionnaire (CSUQ), (3) conducting a qualitative interview, and (4) comparing preference, usage, and alcohol use estimates (calories, grams per drinking episode) between SmartIntake and online diet recalls that participants completed for a parent study. Methods College students (N=15) who endorsed a pattern of heavy drinking were recruited from a parent study. Participants used SmartIntake to send photographs of all alcohol and food intake over a 3-day period and then completed a follow-up interview and the CSUQ. CSUQ items range from 1-7, with lower scores indicating greater usability. Total drinking occasions were determined by adding the number of drinking occasions captured by SmartIntake plus the number of drinking occasions participants reported that they missed capturing. Usage was defined by the number of days participants provided food/beverage photos through the app, or the number of diet recalls completed. Results SmartIntake captured 87% (13/15) of total reported drinking occasions. Participants rated the app as highly usable in the CSUQ (mean 2.28, SD 1.23). Most participants (14/15, 93%) preferred using SmartIntake versus recalls, and usage was significantly higher with SmartIntake than recalls (42/45, 93% vs 35/45, 78%; P=.04). Triple the number of participants submitted alcohol reports with SmartIntake compared to the recalls (SmartIntake 9/15, 60% vs recalls 3/15, 20%; P=.06), and 60% (9/15) of participants reported drinking during the study. Conclusions SmartIntake was acceptable to college students who drank heavily and captured most drinking occasions. Participants had higher usage of SmartIntake compared to recalls, suggesting SmartIntake may be well suited to measuring alcohol consumption in young adults. However, 40% (6/15) did not drink during the brief testing period and, although findings are promising, a longer trial is needed.

Analysis of Acculturation, Sex, and Heavy Alcohol use in Latino College Students

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 565-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan M. Safer ◽  
Gina Piane
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
California State University ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
Latino College Students ◽  
State University ◽  
Long Beach ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Heavy Alcohol Use

24% of 917 students at California State University Long Beach who completed an alcohol use survey in 2002 (73% response) identified themselves as Latino. Because measures of acculturation reported in most adult studies positively correlated with alcohol use and sex, it was hypothesized that these associations might also apply to Latino college students. With increasing levels of acculturation, women but not men in this Latino college sample reported significantly greater occurrence of heavy drinking, positive attitudes about drinking, and perception that most of their friends use alcoholic beverages.

scholarly journals Real-Time Mobile Monitoring of Drinking Episodes in Young Adult Heavy Drinkers: Development and Comparative Survey Study

10.2196/13765 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. e13765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Fridberg ◽  
James Faria ◽  
Dingcai Cao ◽  
Andrea C King
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Binge Drinking ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Real World ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
Natural Environments

Background Binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more standard alcoholic drinks for men (four for women) within a 2-hour period, is common among young adults and is associated with significant alcohol-related morbidity and mortality. To date, most research on this problem in young adults has relied upon retrospective questionnaires or costly laboratory-based procedures. Smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may address these limitations by allowing researchers to measure alcohol use and related consequences in real time and in drinkers’ natural environments. To date, however, relatively less research has systematically examined the utility of this approach in a sample of young adults targeting real-world heavy drinking episodes specifically. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of a smartphone-based EMA method targeting binge drinking and related outcomes in heavy drinking young adults during real-world drinking occasions. Methods Young adult binge drinkers in the smartphone group (N=83; mean 25.4 (SD 2.6) years; 58% (48/83) male; bingeing on 23.2% (6.5/28) days in the past month) completed baseline measures of alcohol use and drinking-related consequences, followed by up to two smartphone-based EMA sessions of typical drinking behavior and related outcomes in their natural environments. They also completed next-day and two-week follow-up surveys further assessing alcohol use and related consequences during the EMA sessions and two weeks after study participation, respectively. A separate demographic- and drinking-matched safety comparison group (N=25) completed the baseline and two-week follow-up surveys but did not complete EMA of real-world drinking behavior. Results Most participants (71%, 59/83) in the smartphone group engaged in binge drinking during at least one 3-hour EMA session, consuming 7.3 (SD 3.0) standard alcoholic drinks. They completed 87.2% (507/581) system-initiated EMA prompts during the real-world drinking episode, supporting the feasibility of this approach. The procedure was acceptable, as evidenced by high participant ratings for overall satisfaction with the EMA software and study procedures and low ratings for intrusiveness of the mobile surveys. Regarding safety, participants endorsed few drinking-related consequences during or after the real-world drinking episode, with no adverse or serious adverse events reported. There were no differences between the groups in terms of changes in drinking behavior or consequences from baseline to two-week follow-up. Conclusions This study provided preliminary support for the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of a smartphone-based EMA of real-time alcohol use and related outcomes in young adult heavy drinkers. The results suggest that young adults can use smartphones to safely monitor drinking even during very heavy drinking episodes. Smartphone-based EMA has strong potential to inform future research on the epidemiology of and intervention for alcohol use disorder by providing researchers with an efficient and inexpensive way to capture large amounts of data on real-world drinking behavior and consequences.

Real-Time Mobile Monitoring of Drinking Episodes in Young Adult Heavy Drinkers: Development and Comparative Survey Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Fridberg ◽  
James Faria ◽  
Dingcai Cao ◽  
Andrea C King
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Binge Drinking ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Real World ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
Natural Environments

BACKGROUND Binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more standard alcoholic drinks for men (four for women) within a 2-hour period, is common among young adults and is associated with significant alcohol-related morbidity and mortality. To date, most research on this problem in young adults has relied upon retrospective questionnaires or costly laboratory-based procedures. Smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may address these limitations by allowing researchers to measure alcohol use and related consequences in real time and in drinkers’ natural environments. To date, however, relatively less research has systematically examined the utility of this approach in a sample of young adults targeting real-world heavy drinking episodes specifically. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of a smartphone-based EMA method targeting binge drinking and related outcomes in heavy drinking young adults during real-world drinking occasions. METHODS Young adult binge drinkers in the smartphone group (N=83; mean 25.4 (SD 2.6) years; 58% (48/83) male; bingeing on 23.2% (6.5/28) days in the past month) completed baseline measures of alcohol use and drinking-related consequences, followed by up to two smartphone-based EMA sessions of typical drinking behavior and related outcomes in their natural environments. They also completed next-day and two-week follow-up surveys further assessing alcohol use and related consequences during the EMA sessions and two weeks after study participation, respectively. A separate demographic- and drinking-matched safety comparison group (N=25) completed the baseline and two-week follow-up surveys but did not complete EMA of real-world drinking behavior. RESULTS Most participants (71%, 59/83) in the smartphone group engaged in binge drinking during at least one 3-hour EMA session, consuming 7.3 (SD 3.0) standard alcoholic drinks. They completed 87.2% (507/581) system-initiated EMA prompts during the real-world drinking episode, supporting the feasibility of this approach. The procedure was acceptable, as evidenced by high participant ratings for overall satisfaction with the EMA software and study procedures and low ratings for intrusiveness of the mobile surveys. Regarding safety, participants endorsed few drinking-related consequences during or after the real-world drinking episode, with no adverse or serious adverse events reported. There were no differences between the groups in terms of changes in drinking behavior or consequences from baseline to two-week follow-up. CONCLUSIONS This study provided preliminary support for the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of a smartphone-based EMA of real-time alcohol use and related outcomes in young adult heavy drinkers. The results suggest that young adults can use smartphones to safely monitor drinking even during very heavy drinking episodes. Smartphone-based EMA has strong potential to inform future research on the epidemiology of and intervention for alcohol use disorder by providing researchers with an efficient and inexpensive way to capture large amounts of data on real-world drinking behavior and consequences.

Impact of Perceived Second-Hand Consequences Related to Alcohol Use on College Students' Drinking Behavior Intent: A Test of Feasibility

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mickey Trockel ◽  
Andrew Wall ◽  
Janet Reis
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Class Discussion ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
The Impact

This article presents the results of an experiment designed to determine the impact of a group discussion about second-hand consequences of alcohol use on college students' intentions to consume alcohol. Participants were students enrolled in two large Community Health courses at a large Midwestern university ( n = 184). After randomization of class sections into an intervention or a control group, intervention group students participated in a class discussion on the negative consequences college students experience as a result of other students' drinking behavior, prior to answering survey questions regarding their drinking behavior intent. Compared to controls who completed the questionnaire only, intervention group participants reported intent to limit themselves to fewer drinks per drinking occasion ( p = .003) and fewer drinks per week ( p = .004). The effects of the brief educational intervention were analyzed using structural equation modeling, to test the feasibility of a hypothesized intervention mechanism.

scholarly journals Effects of the COVID-19 Mitigation Measures on Alcohol Consumption and Binge Drinking in College Students: A Longitudinal Survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (18) ◽  
pp. 9822
Author(s):  
Margarida Vasconcelos ◽  
Alberto Crego ◽  
Rui Rodrigues ◽  
Natália Almeida-Antunes ◽  
Eduardo López-Caneda
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Binge Drinking ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Alcohol Craving ◽  
Binge Drinkers ◽  
The Impact

To “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 contagion, several countries ordered lockdowns amid the pandemic along with indications on social distancing. These social isolation measures could potentially bring alterations to healthy behavior, including to alcohol consumption. However, there is hardly any scientific evidence of the impact of such measures on alcohol consumption and binge drinking (BD) among young adults, and how they relate to alcohol craving, stress, anxiety, and depression levels. We addressed these questions by conducting a longitudinal study with 146 Portuguese college students—regular binge drinkers (regular BDs), infrequent binge drinkers (infrequent BDs) and non-binge drinkers (non-BDs)—in three moments: before the pandemic (Pre-Lockdown), during lockdown (Lockdown) and 6 months after (Post-Lockdown). Results revealed that regular BDs decreased alcohol use during Lockdown, a change in behavior that was even greater during Post-Lockdown, when regular BDs displayed similar levels of consumption to infrequent/non-BDs. Additionally, alcohol craving and living with friends were predictive of alcohol use during Lockdown, whereas stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms did not contribute to explain changes in drinking behavior. Collectively, the results suggest that BD in young Portuguese college students can be stopped when the contexts in which alcohol intake usually takes place are suppressed, which may have important implications for future prevention and intervention strategies.

scholarly journals Marital Quality and Heavy Alcohol Use Among Older Couples

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 406-406
Author(s):  
Angela Curl ◽  
Jennifer Bulanda ◽  
Amy Restorick Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Older Couples ◽  
Heavy Alcohol ◽  
Pooled Data ◽  
Heavy Alcohol Use

Abstract Supportive marital relationships may reduce partners’ problematic health behaviors, whereas unhappy relationships may lack efficacious spousal monitoring of health and increase the likelihood of using maladaptive coping strategies, such as heavy alcohol use, to deal with relationship problems. We used pooled data from the 2014 and 2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to examine how both partners’ perceptions of marital quality were associated with heavy drinking. Our analytic sample included married couples in which both spouses were over age 50, completed the leave-behind psychosocial questionnaire, and provided non-missing data on marital quality and alcohol use (n=2,095 couples). Measures included both positive and negative dimensions of marital quality and controls for sociodemographic, economic, health, household and marital characteristics. Using Proc Glimmix, we estimated a dual-intercept Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), in which separate equations were computed simultaneously for husbands and wives. For husbands, higher negative marital quality was associated with an increase in the odds of their own heavy drinking (OR=1.27), but there was no significant association between wives’ marital quality and husbands’ heavy drinking behavior. For wives, marital quality was not significantly associated with their own heavy drinking, but husbands’ higher ratings of both negative and positive marital quality increased the risk of wives’ heavy drinking (OR=1.60 and OR=1.75, respectively). Results suggest that marital quality is associated with heavy drinking in later life: self-ratings of marital quality matter for men, whereas spousal perceptions of marital quality are more important for women.

scholarly journals Changes in Alcohol Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Young Adults: The Prospective Effect of Anxiety and Depression

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 4468
Author(s):  
Belén del Valle Vera ◽  
José Carmona-Márquez ◽  
Óscar Martín Lozano-Rojas ◽  
Alberto Parrado-González ◽  
Claudio Vidal-Giné ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Measured Quantity ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Drinking Frequency ◽  
The Impact

Health measures instantiated to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have imposed significant constraints for the population and impacted on drinking habits and mental health. This study longitudinally compared changes in alcohol consumption before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and the impact of sociodemographic and mental health variables on such changes among a community sample of young adults. Data were collected in the context of a larger, ongoing longitudinal study. The sample consisted of 305 young adults from Spain aged between 18 and 26 years (mean age = 21.27, (SD = 2.21), female = 53.4%; college students = 61.6%) who completed first (November-2019 and February-2020; i.e., before the outbreak of COVID-19) and second follow-up questionnaires (March 2021, a year after the COVID-19 outbreak). Alcohol use (quantity and drinking frequency), depression and anxiety symptoms were measured. Quantity and frequency of alcohol use decreased from the pre- to post-COVID-19 period. A decrease in drinking frequency was observed among college students, but not in noncollege peers. Although we found no effect of pre-COVID-19 anxiety on alcohol use changes, those with more depressive symptoms at the pre-COVID assessment were more resistant to decreasing their drinking quantity and frequency after the COVID-19 outbreak. This information will be of value when designing interventions aimed at reducing harmful alcohol use and highlights the role of mental health status when identifying high risk populations of young-adults during this, and future, public health crises.

#BingeDrinking: Using Social Media to Understand College Binge Drinking (Preprint)

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madison Cirillo ◽  
Jennifer Halbert ◽  
Jessica Gomez Smith ◽  
Nour Sami Alamiri ◽  
Karen Ingersoll
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
Reputation Management ◽  
Student Culture ◽  
Student Drinking ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND Hazardous drinking among college students persists, despite ongoing university alcohol education and harmful drinking intervention programs. College students often post comments or pictures about drinking episodes on social media platforms. OBJECTIVE We sought to understand the real-time contexts of student drinking that are shown on social media platforms, and to identify opportunities to reduce alcohol-related harms and inform novel alcohol interventions. METHODS We analyzed social media posts from 7 social media platforms using qualitative inductive coding based on grounded theory to identify the contexts of student drinking, and the attitudes and behaviors of students and peers during drinking episodes. We reviewed publicly available social media posts that included references to alcohol, collaborating with undergraduate students at one university to select their most-used platforms and develop locally-relevant search terms. We coded text and visual posts for explicit and implicit alcohol use, classified them as positive, neutral, or negative, and analyzed the frequency of each code. From codes, we derived themes about the student culture around alcohol use. RESULTS A total of 1,151 social media posts was the sample for this study. These included 809 Twitter tweets, 113 Instagram posts, 23 Facebook posts, 8 YouTube posts, 64 Reddit posts, 34 College Confidential posts, and 100 Greek Rank posts. Posts included implicit and explicit portrayal of alcohol use. Across all types of posts reviewed, we found that positive drinking attitudes were most common, followed by negative and then neutral, but valence varied by platform. Posts that portrayed drinking positively received positive peer feedback, and support the idea that drinking is an essential and positive part of student culture. CONCLUSIONS Social media provides a real-time picture of students’ behavior during their own and others’ heavy drinking. Posts portray heavy drinking as a normal part of student culture, reinforced by peers’ positive feedback on posts. Interventions for college drinking should help students manage alcohol intake in real-time, provide safety information during alcohol use, and raise awareness of online privacy concerns and reputation management. Additional interventions for students, alumni, and parents are needed to address the impact of positive attitudes about and traditions of drinking.

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