A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Game-Based Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use among Youth

University Of Pittsburgh At Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Modified Abstract: Youth experience substantial inequities in alcohol use, thus placing them at greater risk for alcohol-related morbidity and mortality across the life-course. Despite making great strides in identifying determinants (e.g., stress) of these inequities over the last 25 years, evidence-based interventions for reducing alcohol use are lacking. Our primary objective for this application is to rigorously test the efficacy of Singularities, a theory-based, youth-informed, game-based intervention for preventing and reducing alcohol-related harms. This game was developed and pilot tested in our previous grant (R21HD083561; PI: Egan), which showed that the game was highly acceptable to youth. Our proposed fully-powered efficacy trial is the next step to confirm the public health impacts of our game-based intervention. In Aim 1a, we will conduct a randomized controlled trial to test the short-term, mid-term, and long-term efficacy of a game-based intervention for preventing and reducing alcohol-related harms among youth (n=1,992). We hypothesize that at 3, 6, and 12 months after intervention delivery, youth in the game-based intervention arm vs. attention control arm will have greater reductions in alcohol-related harms (primary outcome) and other health risk behaviors (secondary outcomes). In Aim 1b, we will explore the feasibility of intervention uptake and engagement in a non-randomized non-incentivized subsample (n=60) to elucidate intervention implementation under real world conditions. In Aim 2, we will quantitatively explore if RCT participants’ baseline stressors (across multiple distal and proximal domains) and demographics interact with the intervention to predict changes in alcohol-related harms and other outcomes. In Aim 3, we will qualitatively explore (via post-RCT interviews) the interplay between intervention participants’ alcohol-related harms, stressors, and their use of game-based skills. Upon successful completion of this research, the expected outcome is to have an evidence-based intervention for significantly reducing youth alcohol-related harms. Further, our study will provide mixed methods results identifying how stress and demographics moderate the efficacy of our evidence-based intervention, which will inform the field about for whom interventions are most beneficial and illuminate for whom additional interventions are needed. These results will have positive impacts because our intervention has potential to be widely scaled via online dissemination and can help federal agencies meet their goals (e.g., Healthy People 2030) of reducing population-level youth alcohol use.