Dr. Michael Businelle with the TSET Health Promotion Research Center, recently co-authored an article which is being published in Alcoholism Clinical & Experimental Research Control. ACER provides the most significant and current research findings on the nature and management of alcoholism and alcohol-related disorders.
Businelle’s paper, “Development and preliminary effectiveness of a smartphone-based just-in-time adaptive intervention for adults with alcohol misuse who are experiencing homelessness,” summarizes alcohol use outcomes in this audience after they used the Smart-T Alcohol smartphone application for 28 days. The Smart-T Alcohol app is the first just-in-time adaptive intervention specifically designed to reduce alcohol use for adults experiencing homelessness. The Smart-T Alcohol app delivers tailored treatment messages based on current drinking goals and drinking risk factors.
Over the 28-day intervention period, participants showed a decline in drinking days, heavy drinking and drinks per day. Moreover, participants reported high levels of perceived usefulness of the app, and an overwhelming majority accessed the app’s on-demand tips features.
The research outlined in the article indicates that smartphone apps can be used to help heavy drinkers reduce their alcohol use. This type of dynamically-tailored smartphone application may offer a promising and timely method for improving drinking outcomes, quality of life and overall health for this highly disadvantaged and understudied population.
The article can be read in its entirety here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35869820/
