Evidence Rating for Outcomes
Drugs & Substance Abuse | Alcohol |
Date:
A computerized brief intervention is any preventive or therapeutic activity delivered through electronic devices with a maximum total time of one hour. The interventions are designed to help youth think differently about their alcohol use and provide them with skills to reduce or eliminate alcohol use. The practice is rated Effective for reducing short-term alcohol use.
Practice Goals
Computerized brief interventions include preventive or therapeutic activities delivered through online or offline electronic devices such as cell phones, tablets, and computers. Compared with brief interventions that are delivered by health professionals in short therapeutic sessions lasting between 5 to 10 minutes, computerized brief interventions are delivered by an electronic device. Similar to brief interventions, computerized interventions are of short duration and aim to make the individuals think differently about their alcohol use, while also providing them with the skills to change their behavior. Overall, these interventions aim to reduce alcohol use by young people (Smedslund et al. 2016). Specifically, by intervening early, computerized brief interventions seek to reduce or eliminate alcohol use among young people before it takes control of their lives.
Target Population
Computerized brief interventions are designed to appeal to younger generations who have grown up alongside digital media (Smedslund et al. 2016). Specifically, these interventions target individuals aged 15 to 25, who are high or risky consumers of alcohol but motivated to change. Risky consumption of alcohol is defined as consuming 1) at least five beverages during any one drinking session or more than 14 alcoholic beverages a week for males, and 2) four beverages during any one drinking session or more than seven alcoholic beverages a week for females. Overall, it is believed that computerized brief interventions motivate users to think differently about their alcohol use, and–for those motivated to change–provide skills for behavioral change.
Practice Components
Typically, computerized brief interventions consist of three components: assessment, feedback, and decision-making. The assessment component classifies users as low-risk, medium-risk, high-risk, or very high-risk alcohol drinkers and provides the individuals with a recommendation on whether they would benefit from a more formalized treatment program than the computerized brief intervention.
The feedback component provides the users with information on their scores after each assessment and responds to their reactions to their assessment. Computerized interventions typically include two feedback components: targeted feedback and tailored feedback. Targeted feedback refers to providing information to users that pertains to the needs of the entire group; for example, in the case of computerized brief interventions for alcohol use, young people with risky alcohol use may receive messages to increase their awareness of the problem behavior. On the other hand, tailored feedback is feedback specific to an individual’s needs (Smedslund et al. 2016; Worden and McCrady 2013).
Finally, the decision-making component asks users to specify their motivation for behavioral change. Individuals who indicate readiness for change are provided with a list of goal options. Once users select a goal option, they are led through exercises to develop an individualized plan of change and provided with resources, including lists of self-help groups, lists of therapists, and other relevant materials. It is important to note that individuals who do not indicate a motivation to change have the option of receiving basic information on their behavioral problem; however, once this information is provided the intervention ends.
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Drugs & Substance Abuse | Alcohol
Overall, the study indicated that computerized brief interventions had a small, yet statistically significant impact on the alcohol consumption of youths aged 15-25. Specifically, Smedslund and colleagues (2016) aggregated the results of 15 studies (those that included both assessment and feedback components, but no decision-making component) and found a statistically significant overall mean effect size of -0.17, suggesting that computerized brief interventions reduced short-term alcohol consumption, compared with no intervention. |
These sources were used in the development of the practice profile:
Smedslund, Geir, Sabine Wollscheid, Lin Fang, Wendy Nilsen, Asbjorn Steiro, and Lillebeth Larun. 2017. “Effects of Early, Computerized Brief Interventions on Risky Alcohol Use and Risky Cannabis Use Among Young People.” Campbell Collaboration 6. View abstract
These sources were used in the development of the practice profile:
Worden, B.L., and B.S. McCrady. 2013. “Effectiveness of a Feedback-Based Brief Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use in Community Substance Use Disorders.” Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 31(186):186–205.
Age: 15 - 25
Gender: Male, Female
Race/Ethnicity: White, Other
Targeted Population: Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Offenders
Setting (Delivery): Other Community Setting, Inpatient/Outpatient, Campus
Practice Type: Alcohol and Drug Therapy/Treatment, Alcohol and Drug Prevention
Unit of Analysis: Persons