Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Sep 27, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Sep 30, 2018 - Nov 25, 2018
Date Accepted: Mar 30, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Original Paper: Acceptability of a tailored mobile alcohol intervention for ex-serving military personnel: A qualitative assessment
ABSTRACT
Background:
Alcohol consumption in the United Kingdom (UK) Armed Forces is higher than in the general population and this pattern continues after leaving service. Smartphone applications (apps) may be useful to increase ex-serving personnel’s awareness of their alcohol consumption, support self-monitoring and prompt a change in behaviour.
Objective:
To explore the acceptability of ‘Information about Drinking in Ex-serving personnel’ (InDEx); a tailored smartphone app, combined with personalised text messaging, designed to target ex-serving personnel who meet the criteria for hazardous alcohol use.
Methods:
The InDEx intervention included four key modules; i) assessment and normative feedback, ii) self-monitoring and feedback, iii) goal setting and review, and iv) personalised text messaging. A semi-structured telephone interview study was conducted with ex-serving personnel after using the app for a 28-day period. Interviews were used to explore perceptions of the app modules and its functionality, and perceived changes in participant’s drinking. Interview transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.
Results:
29 (93.5%) participants who used InDEx agreed to take part in a telephone interview. Four themes were identified; “Credibility”, “Give me a reason to use it”, “Keep the app simple”, and “App is helpful for ex-serving personnel”. The importance of functionality and of meeting the individual needs of ex-serving personnel was emphasised. Acceptability and engagement with specific modules of the app and text messages were influenced by; i) whether the content was appropriately tailored to them, ii) if they felt it provided credible information and iii) beliefs about their own drinking behaviours. Participants recommended that the app would be most suitable for personnel about to leave the Armed Forces.
Conclusions:
InDEx was an acceptable mobile app for ex-serving personnel for monitoring alcohol consumption and in providing meaningful feedback to the individual. Pages which met participant’s interests, provided real-time personalised, credible feedback on their drinking and text messages tailored to participant’s interactions with the app were particularly favoured.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.