Trial reportJMIR public health and surveillance2022
The Moderating Effect of Educational Background on the Efficacy of a Computer-Based Brief Intervention Addressing the Full Spectrum of Alcohol Use: Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in JMIR public health and surveillance, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of social norms messaging approaches for improving health behaviours in developed countries.Nature human behaviour · 2025Pooled it
- Four-Year Effects of a Computer-Based Brief Alcohol Intervention Targeting Alcohol Users in the General Population: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- Three-year trajectories of alcohol use among at-risk and among low-risk drinkers in a general population sample of adults: A latent class growth analysis of a brief intervention trial.Frontiers in public health · 2022Trial
- Longitudinal patterns of mental well-being over four years in a german general population sample: a growth mixture modeling approach.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Socio-economic equity in the impact of population-based interventions to reduce alcohol consumption.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Changes in alcohol consumption among Belgian adults participating in the internet-based one-month-abstinence campaign 'Tournée Minérale'.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Who benefits from alcohol screening and brief intervention? A mini-review on socioeconomic inequalities with a focus on evidence from the United States.Addictive behaviors · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe alcohol-attributable burden of disease is high among socially disadvantaged individuals. Interventional efforts intending to have a public health impact should also address the reduction of social inequalities due to alcohol.
objectiveThe aim was to test the moderating role of educational background on the efficacy of a computer-based brief intervention addressing the full spectrum of alcohol use.
methodsWe recruited 1646 adults from the general population aged 18 to 64 years (920 women, 55.9%; mean age 31 years; 574 with less than 12 years of school education, 34.9%) who reported alcohol use in the past year. The participants were randomly assigned a brief alcohol intervention or to assessment only (participation rate, 66.9%, 1646/2463 eligible persons). Recruitment took place in a municipal registry office in one German city. All participants filled out a self-administered, tablet-based survey during the recruitment process and were assessed 3, 6, and 12 months later by study assistants via computer-assisted telephone interviews. The intervention consisted of 3 computer-generated and individualized feedback letters that were sent via mail at baseline, month 3, and month 6. The intervention was based on the transtheoretical model of behavior change and expert system software that generated the feedback letters automatically according to previously defined decision rules. The outcome was self-reported change in number of alcoholic drinks per week over 12 months. The moderator was school education according to highest general educational degree (less than 12 years of education vs 12 years or more). Covariates were sex, age, employment, smoking, and alcohol-related risk level.
resultsLatent growth modeling revealed that the intervention effect after 12 months was moderated by educational background (incidence rate ratio 1.38, 95% CI 1.08-1.76). Individuals with less than 12 years of school education increased their weekly alcohol use to a lesser extent when they received the intervention compared to assessment only (incidence rate ratio 1.30, 95% CI 1.05-1.62; Bayes factor 3.82). No difference was found between groups (incidence rate ratio 0.95, 95% CI 0.84-1.07; Bayes factor 0.30) among those with 12 or more years of school education.
conclusionsThe efficacy of an individualized brief alcohol intervention was moderated by the participants' educational background. Alcohol users with less than 12 years of school education benefited, whereas those with 12 or more years did not. People with lower levels of education might be more receptive to the behavior change mechanisms used by brief alcohol interventions. The intervention approach may support the reduction of health inequalities in the population at large if individuals with low or medium education can be reached.
trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register DRKS00014274; https://www.drks.de/DRKS00014274.
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