Trial reportBMC medicine2022
Effectiveness of a digital intervention versus alcohol information for online help-seekers in Sweden: a randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 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
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Analyzing the Effect of Telemedicine on Domains of Quality Through Facilitators and Barriers to Adoption: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness of the Components of a Digital Multiple Health Behavior Change Intervention Among Individuals Seeking Help Online (Coach): Factorial Randomized Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- Effectiveness of the Components of a Digital Multiple Health Behavior Intervention Among University Students (Buddy): Factorial Randomized Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- The effectiveness of a drink-counting and a breathalyser-coupled smartphone application for reduced heavy drinking among alcohol-dependent adults in Sweden: A randomised controlled trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Trial
- Individualized treatment effects of a digital alcohol intervention and their associations with participant characteristics and engagement.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2024Trial
- Satisfaction with a digital support tool targeting alcohol consumption: perspectives from participants in a randomized control trial.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2024Trial
- Randomized study of two different consent procedures on recall: a study within a digital alcohol intervention trial.Trials · 2024Trial
- Exploratory mixed methods analysis of self-authored content from participants in a digital alcohol intervention trial.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2023Trial
- Effect of a smartphone intervention as a secondary prevention for use among university students with unhealthy alcohol use: randomised controlled trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Trial
- Feasibility of delivering a digital multiple health behaviour intervention via a home-telemonitoring system: engagement, outcomes, and user experiences.BMC research notes · 2026Article
- Identifying Behavior Change Techniques for Digital Interventions Addressing Alcohol and Tobacco Co-Use: Findings From a Delphi Consensus Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Long-term outcomes of a digital alcohol intervention targeting online help-seekers: a simulation study of incidence of disease, quality-adjusted life-years and costs.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Digital Interventions for Stimulant Use Among People Living with HIV: A Narrative Review.Current HIV/AIDS reports · 2025Review
- Article
- A physiologically-based digital twin for alcohol consumption-predicting real-life drinking responses and long-term plasma PEth.NPJ digital medicine · 2024Article
- Digital Alcohol Interventions Could Be Part of the Societal Response to Harmful Consumption, but We Know Little About Their Long-Term Costs and Health Outcomes.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Recommendations for implementing digital alcohol interventions in primary care: lessons learned from a Norwegian feasibility study.Frontiers in health services · 2024Article
- Is internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for alcohol use disorder equally effective for men and women? Implications of a secondary analysis of a clinical trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Medical Telemonitoring for the Management of Hypertension in Older Patients in Japan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- Avoiding Under- and Overrecruitment in Behavioral Intervention Trials Using Bayesian Sequential Designs: Tutorial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe ubiquity of Internet connectivity, and widespread unmet needs, requires investigations of digital interventions for people seeking help with their drinking. The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of a digital alcohol intervention compared to existing online resources for help seekers.
methodsThis parallel randomised controlled trial included 2129 risky drinkers with access to a mobile phone and aged 18 years or older. Randomised sub-studies investigated consent procedures and control group design. Simple computerised randomisation was used. Participants were aware of allocation after randomisation; research personnel were not. The digital intervention was designed around weekly monitoring of alcohol consumption followed by feedback and tools for behaviour change. Primary outcomes were total weekly consumption (TWC) and frequency of heavy episodic drinking (HED), measured 2 and 4 months post-randomisation.
resultsBetween 25/04/2019 and 26/11/2020, 2129 participants were randomised (intervention: 1063, control: 1066). Negative binomial regression was used to contrast groups, with both Bayesian and maximum likelihood inference. The posterior median incidence rate ratio (IRR) of TWC was 0.89 (95% CI = 0.81;0.99, 98.2% probability of effect, P-value = 0.033) at 2 months among 1557 participants and 0.77 (95% CI = 0.69;0.86, > 99.9% probability of effect, P-value < 0.001) at 4 months among 1429 participants. For HED, the IRR was 0.83 (95% CI = 0.75;0.93, > 99.9% probability of effect, P-value = 0.0009) at 2 months among 1548 participants and 0.71 (95% CI = 0.63;0.79, probability of effect > 99.9%, P-value < 0.0001) at 4 months among 1424 participants. Analyses with imputed data were not markedly different.
conclusionsA digital alcohol intervention produced self-reported behaviour change among online help seekers in the general population. The internal and external validity of this trial is strong, subject to carefully considered study limitations arguably inherent to trials of this nature. Limitations include higher than anticipated attrition to follow-up and lack of blinding.
trial registrationThe trial was prospectively registered ( ISRCTN48317451 ).
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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.