Treatment dismantling pilot study to identify the active ingredients in personalized feedback interventions for hazardous alcohol use: randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: There is a considerable body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of personalized feedback interventions for hazardous alcohol use—whether delivered face-to-face, by postal mail, or over the Internet (probably now the primary mode of delivery). The Check Your Drinking Screener (CYD; see www.CheckYourDrinking.net) is one such intervention. OBJECTIVES: The current treatment dismantling study assessed which components of personalized feedback interventions were effective in motivating change in drinking. Specifically, the major objective of this project was to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing the impact of the normative feedback and other personalized feedback components of the CYD intervention in the general population. METHODS: Participants were recruited to take part in an RCT and received either the complete CYD final report, just the normative feedback sections of the CYD, just the personalized feedback components of the CYD, or were assigned to a no-intervention control group. Participants were followed-up at 3 months to assess changes in alcohol consumption. RESULTS: A total of 741 hazardous drinking participants were recruited for the trial, of which 73 percent provided follow-up data. Analyses using an intent-to-treat approach found some evidence for the impact of the personalized feedback components of the CYD in reducing alcohol consumption on the variables, number of drinks in a week and AUDIT-C (p = .028 and .047 respectively; no impact on highest number of drinks on one occasion; p = .594). However, there was no significant evidence of the impact of the normative feedback components (all p > .3). CONCLUSIONS: Personalized feedback elements alone could provide an active intervention for hazardous drinkers, particularly in situations where normative feedback information was not available. TRIALS REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01608763. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13722-014-0022-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.