JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Harmful use of alcohol contributes to 5.9% of deaths globally, and as much as 25% of total deaths in the age group 20-39 years are attributable to harmful drinking. Furthermore, it is the seventh leading risk factor for disability-adjusted-life-years, and the leading factor among those aged 15 to 49, for which alcohol use also was the leading risk factor of death. Mobile-phone based interventions have grown popular for lifestyle behaviour change in general, and particularly the use of text messaging, as it is a technology ubiquitous in mobile phones. Reviews and meta-analyses of digital interventions for alcohol consumption have mainly focused on web based interventions, thus there is a need for a body of evidence to guide health practitioners, policy makers, and researchers with respect to available text messaging interventions for alcohol consumption reduction.

Objective:

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to assess the effectiveness of text messaging interventions for reducing alcohol consumption among harmful and hazardous drinkers, compared to receiving none, minimal, or unrelated health information. Specifically we ask: 1. Can interventions consisting of only text messages be effective in reducing alcohol consumption compared to no intervention or a minimal/unrelated intervention? 2. Can interventions consisting of only text messages be effective in reducing the prevalence of risky drinking compared to no intervention or a minimal/unrelated intervention?

Methods:

Several databases will be searched, including CENTRAL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Conference Proceedings Citation Index, ClinicalTrials.gov, OpenGrey, etc. Reports of studies that evaluate text messaging interventions for reducing alcohol consumption will be included. Primary outcomes of interest will be weekly alcohol consumption and frequency of heavy episodic drinking. The Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias tool will be used to assess bias in reports, and the GRADE approach will be used to assess the quality of the body of evidence. A narrative review will be presented, and a meta-analysis will be conducted in case of homogeneity among included studies.

Results:

The systematic review has not yet begun, but is expected to start in the beginning of 2019 and publication of the final review and meta-analysis is expected at the end of the second quarter of 2019.

Conclusions:

The technology for text messaging is ubiquitous in mobile-phones, thus the potential reach of interventions utilizing this technique is great. However there are no meta-analyses to date that limit the scope to the use of text messaging interventions for alcohol reduction. Therefore the proposed systematic review and meta-analysis will help health practitioners, policy decision makers, researchers, etc. to better understand the effects of these interventions. Clinical Trial: Note: According to PROSPERO recommendations, registration should not be done until peer review of the protocol is complete.