ArticleAlcoholism, clinical and experimental research2021
Accuracy of Consumer-marketed smartphone-paired alcohol breath testing devices: A laboratory validation study.
Article in Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05692830 (Towards a Wearable Alcohol Biosensor), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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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.
Towards a Wearable Alcohol Biosensor: Examining the Accuracy of BAC Estimates From New-Generation Transdermal Technology Using Large-Scale Human Testing and Machine Learning Algorithms
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of smartphone breathalyzer feedback on willingness to drive in moderately intoxicated individuals: A randomized trial.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2025Trial
- Using mobile technology to influence alcohol-impaired driving risk perceptions and decisions.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2024Trial
- Within-Person and Between-Person Risk Perceptions Predict Driving After Drinking: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- The feasibility of integrating remote breath alcohol monitoring into ecological momentary assessment of intimate partner violence among young adults with a history of heavy drinking and aggression.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Alcohol approach-avoidance task behavior and brain potentials differentially predict ecologically assessed alcohol craving and consumption in early emerging adulthood.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Mobile Health for Alcohol Use Assessment: Longitudinal Effects of Breathalyzer Self-Monitoring in Everyday Contexts.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Physical context of alcohol use and craving: An EMA exploratory study.Addictive behaviors · 2025Article
- Unplanned drinking predicts alcohol-impaired driving cognitions and behavior in daily life.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2025Article
- Exploratory analysis of blood alcohol concentration-related technology use and drinking outcomes among young adults.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2024Article
- Practical Technology for Expanding and Improving Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Telehealth, Remote Monitoring, and Digital Health Interventions.The Psychiatric clinics of North America · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough alcohol breath testing devices that pair with smartphones are promoted for the prevention of alcohol-impaired driving, their accuracy has not been established.
methodsIn a within-subjects laboratory study, we administered weight-based doses of ethanol to two groups of 10 healthy, moderate drinkers aiming to achieve a target peak blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.10%. We obtained a peak phlebotomy BAC and measured breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) with a police-grade device (Intoxilyzer 240) and two randomly ordered series of 3 consumer smartphone-paired devices (6 total devices) with measurements every 20 min until the BrAC reached <0.02% on the police device. Ten participants tested the first 3 devices, and the other 10 participants tested the other 3 devices. We measured mean paired differences in BrAC with 95% confidence intervals between the police-grade device and consumer devices.
resultsThe enrolled sample (N = 20) included 11 females; 15 white, 3 Asian, and 2 Black participants; with a mean age of 27 and mean BMI of 24.6. Peak BACs ranged from 0.06-0.14%. All 7 devices underestimated BAC by >0.01%, though the BACtrack Mobile Pro and police-grade device were consistently more accurate than the Drinkmate and Evoc. Compared with the police-grade device measurements, the BACtrack Mobile Pro readings were consistently higher, the BACtrack Vio and Alcohoot measurements similar, and the Floome, Drinkmake, and Evoc consistently lower. The BACtrack Mobile Pro and Alcohoot were most sensitive in detecting BAC driving limit thresholds, while the Drinkmate and Evoc devices failed to detect BAC limit thresholds more than 50% of the time relative to the police-grade device.
conclusionsThe accuracy of smartphone-paired devices varied widely in this laboratory study of healthy participants. Although some devices are suitable for clinical and research purposes, others underestimated BAC, creating the potential to mislead intoxicated users into thinking that they are fit to drive.
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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.