ArticleAddictive behaviors2018
In pursuit of a self-sustaining college alcohol intervention: Deploying gamified PNF in the real world.
Article in Addictive behaviors, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Mobile Apps to Reduce Tobacco, Alcohol, and Illicit Drug Use: Systematic Review of the First Decade.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Smartphone-Based Intervention Targeting Norms and Risk Perception Among University Students with Unhealthy Alcohol Use: Secondary Mediation Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- A Gamified Personalized Normative Feedback App to Reduce Drinking Among Sexual Minority Women: Randomized Controlled Trial and Feasibility Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Trial
- Integrating social media inspired features into a personalized normative feedback intervention combats social media-based alcohol influence.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Trial
- Leveraging copresence to increase the effectiveness of gamified personalized normative feedback.Addictive behaviors · 2019Trial
- Examining the viewing pattern of Web-delivered personalized feedback interventions aimed at reducing alcohol-related risky sexual behavior among young adults.Journal of American college health : J of ACHTrial
- Patterns of mHealth Engagement and Identification of Facilitators and Barriers to Mobile Health Applications for People Who Use Opioids.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Mobile apps to reduce depressive symptoms and alcohol use in youth: A systematic review and meta-analysis: A systematic review.Campbell systematic reviews · 2024Review
- Therapeutic Content of Mobile Phone Applications for Substance Use Disorders: An Umbrella Review.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Digital health · 2024Article
- Digital interventions for substance use disorders in young people: rapid review.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2023Review
- Serious Games Supporting the Prevention and Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Consumption in Youth: Scoping Review.JMIR serious games · 2022Article
- The Impact of Mobile Technology-Delivered Interventions on Youth Well-being: Systematic Review and 3-Level Meta-analysis.JMIR mental health · 2022Review
- Prospective Relationships Between Objectively Assessed Social Media Use, Drinking Norms, and Alcohol Consumption Among First-Year Students.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2021Article
- A Gamified, Social Media-Inspired, Web-Based Personalized Normative Feedback Alcohol Intervention for Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer-Identified Women: Protocol for a Hybrid Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2021Article
- Temporal, Sex-Specific, Social Media-Based Alcohol Influences during the Transition to College.Substance use & misuse · 2021Article
- Recommendations for Implementing Gamification for Mental Health and Wellbeing.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Review
- Lesbians' use of popular social media sites is associated with perceived drinking norms & interest in receiving personalized normative feedback on alcohol use.Alcoholism treatment quarterly · 2020Article
- Gamification in Apps and Technologies for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being: Systematic Review.JMIR mental health · 2019Article
- An App That Incorporates Gamification, Mini-Games, and Social Connection to Improve Men's Mental Health and Well-Being (MindMax): Participatory Design Process.JMIR mental health · 2018Article
- Increasing Chance-Based Uncertainty Reduces Heavy Drinkers' Cognitive Reactance to Web-Based Personalized Normative Feedback.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Our recent work (Boyle, Earle, LaBrie, & Smith, 2017) showed that the efficacy of personalized normative feedback-based (PNF) college alcohol interventions can be improved through the addition of gamified elements including points, chance, competition, and personal avatars. However, participants in that study were compensated with subject pool credit. In the current study, we piloted an upgraded, smartphone-based version of the game, which was designed to be truly self-sustaining (i.e., engaging enough that students play voluntarily without the presence of external motivators). First-year students were invited to play the game weekly for six rounds, with participants submitting and voting on their own questions each week and receiving a novel type of feedback in addition to standard descriptive PNF: opposite peers' judgments of participants' self-reported drinking behavior, or reflective norms. With no play-based incentives, 222 first-year college students voluntarily played the game, CampusGANDR. ANCOVA models revealed that, relative to participants randomized to receive feedback on control topics during the three intervention rounds, those who received both descriptive and reflective feedback on peer alcohol use had significantly reduced normative perceptions and reduced alcohol use two months post intervention. This was especially true among heavy drinkers. The results suggest that our gamified "GANDR" approach shows promise as a self-sustaining intervention and, further, that high-risk drinkers may benefit disproportionately from this methodology. Thus, self-sustaining interventions represent an encouraging avenue for future research and development and may hold the potential to impact risky college drinking on a large scale.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.