Seeking care where they can: A systematic review of global trends in online alcohol treatment utilization among non-veteran and veteran women

BACKGROUND: Findings from a person-level meta-analysis of online alcohol intervention trials suggest that women disproportionately seek out such interventions (Riper et al., 2018). Although women may be a “hidden population” that is particularly drawn to online alcohol interventions, trial design features may explain women's apparent over-representation in these trials. METHODS: This systematic review examined associations between gender-tailored recruitment/inclusion criteria and proportions of women enrolled in online alcohol intervention trials, evaluated whether community samples have greater proportions of women than clinical samples, and compared country-specific average proportions of women in trials to country-specific proportions of women with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). RESULTS: Forty-four trials met inclusion/exclusion criteria, 34 community samples and 10 drawn from clinical settings; 4 studies included U.S. veterans and were examined separately. The average proportion of community-recruited women across the studies was 51.20% and the average proportion of clinically-recruited women was 35.81%, a difference that was statistically significant. Across the countries with relevant trials, the expected proportion of those with AUD who are women is 27.1% (World Population Review, 2022). Only 2 studies used targeted recruitment for women so no between-group tests were conducted. There was not a statistically significant difference in the proportion of women across trials that did and did not use gender-tailored alcohol inclusion criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this systematic review suggest that study design factors do not account for the marked over-representation of women in online alcohol interventions, indicating that women are indeed a “hidden population” whose needs should be understood and accommodated.