ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2021
Has the increased participation in the national campaign 'Dry January' been associated with cutting down alcohol consumption in England?
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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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
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Beyond Temporary Sobriety: The Association Between Sobriety Campaign Completion and Intention to Quit Alcohol.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Daily alcohol consumption trajectories and user retention during a national temporary abstinence campaign: real-world data from a smartphone application.BMC medicine · 2026Observational
- Individual-centric N-of-1 trials: a case study assessing the effect of alcohol abstinence on mood levels.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Factors influencing complete abstinence during Thailand's temporary alcohol abstinence campaign.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A scoping review of Dry January: evidence and future directions.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2025Article
- Prevalence and characteristics of participants inFrontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Characterizing Twitter chatter about temporary alcohol abstinence during "Dry January".Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2023Article
- Using Natural Language Processing to Explore "Dry January" Posts on Twitter: Longitudinal Infodemiology Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- One-month alcohol abstinence national campaigns: a scoping review of the harm reduction benefits.Harm reduction journal · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimsDry January is a national multimedia campaign in the UK that encourages people to abstain from drinking alcohol during the month of January. The population-level campaign makes extensive use of email and social media to support participants and has reported a substantial increase in participation since 2015. This study aimed to assess whether the increase in participation in Dry January between 2015 and 2018 was associated with reduced alcohol consumption in England.
designRepeat cross-sectional design.
settingEngland, March 2014 to January 2018.
participantsA total of 37,142 respondents to the Alcohol Toolkit Study, a monthly in-home survey of alcohol consumption among representative cross-sectional samples of people aged 16+ years in England. MEASURES: Outcomes included i) percentage of adults reporting drinking monthly or less frequently in the last 6 months and ii) mean weekly alcohol consumption among drinkers derived from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test questions on typical frequency and quantity in the last 6 months. ANALYSES: For each outcome, regression models were fitted for month: January (2015 and 2018) vs March-December (2014 and 2017) and for year: 2014/15 vs 2017/18. Interaction terms were included in the models to examine whether the difference between January and the preceding months on each outcome measure depended upon the year (2014/15 vs 2017/18). For non-significant interactions, Bayes factors were calculated to assess the relative strength of evidence for large effects (OR = 1.80 on monthly drinking and β=-1.0 on mean consumption) compared with the null.
resultsDifferences between January and other months were similar in 2014/15 and 2017/18 for adults reporting drinking monthly or less frequently and the mean consumption among drinkers (OR = 0.91, 95 %CI 0.79-1.05, BF = 0.05; β = 0.55, 95 %CI=-0.14 to 1.25, BF = 0.13 respectively).
conclusionsThe increase in participation in Dry January between 2015 and 2018 was not associated with large corresponding changes in people drinking monthly or less frequently over the last 6 months, or in mean weekly consumption among drinkers.
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