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The development of Drink Less: an alcohol reduction smartphone app for excessive drinkers

Garnett, C; Crane, D; West, R; Brown, J; Michie, S; (2018) The development of Drink Less: an alcohol reduction smartphone app for excessive drinkers. Translational Behavioral Medicine 10.1093/tbm/iby043. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Excessive alcohol consumption poses a serious problem for public health. Digital behavior change interventions have the potential to help users reduce their drinking. In accordance with Open Science principles, this paper describes the development of a smartphone app to help individuals who drink excessively to reduce their alcohol consumption. Following the UK Medical Research Council’s guidance and the Multiphase Optimization Strategy, development consisted of two phases: (i) selection of intervention components and (ii) design and development work to implement the chosen components into modules to be evaluated further for inclusion in the app. Phase 1 involved a scoping literature review, expert consensus study and content analysis of existing alcohol apps. Findings were integrated within a broad model of behavior change (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behavior). Phase 2 involved a highly iterative process and used the “Person-Based” approach to promote engagement. From Phase 1, five intervention components were selected: (i) Normative Feedback, (ii) Cognitive Bias Re-training, (iii) Self-monitoring and Feedback, (iv) Action Planning, and (v) Identity Change. Phase 2 indicated that each of these components presented different challenges for implementation as app modules; all required multiple iterations and design changes to arrive at versions that would be suitable for inclusion in a subsequent evaluation study. The development of the Drink Less app involved a thorough process of component identification with a scoping literature review, expert consensus, and review of other apps. Translation of the components into app modules required a highly iterative process involving user testing and design modification.

Type: Article
Title: The development of Drink Less: an alcohol reduction smartphone app for excessive drinkers
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/tbm/iby043
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/iby043
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Development, Digital interventions, Smartphone application, Alcohol consumption, Behavior change
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10047964
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