Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Dec 5, 2023
Date Accepted: Feb 20, 2024
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Reducing Hazardous Alcohol Use among Sexual Minority Cisgender Men and Transgender Individuals: A Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Combined Motivational Interviewing and Ecological Momentary Intervention
ABSTRACT
Background:
Sexual minority cisgender men and transgender (SMMT) individuals, particularly emerging adults (ages 18-34), often report hazardous drinking. Given that alcohol use increases the likelihood of HIV risk behaviors, and HIV disproportionately affects SMMT individuals, there is a need to test interventions that reduce hazardous alcohol use and subsequent HIV risk behaviors among this population.
Objective:
This study proposes and tests an enhanced motivational interviewing (MI) intervention that utilizes smartphones, mobile breathalyzers, and location tracking to provide real-time messaging that addresses triggers for drinking when SMMT individuals visit locations associated with hazardous alcohol use.
Methods:
We will conduct a 3-arm randomized controlled trial (N=405 HIV-negative SMMT; 135/condition) comparing the following conditions: 1) TRAC: a smartphone-delivered 4-session MI intervention, 2) TRAC-ER: an ecological momentary intervention with smartphone-delivered MI coupled with real-time messaging based on geographic places that are triggers to drinking, 3) a smartphone alcohol monitoring (SAM)-only control group). Breathalyzer results and daily self-reports will be used to assess the primary and secondary outcomes of drinking days, drinks/drinking day, binge drinking episodes, and HIV risk behaviors. Additional assessments at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months will evaluate exploratory long-term outcomes.
Results:
The study is part of a 5-year research award that was funded in August 2022 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The first 1.5 years of the study will be dedicated to planning and development activities including formative research, app design and testing, as well as message design and testing. The subsequent 3.5 years will see the study complete participant recruitment, data collection, analyses, report writing and dissemination. We expect to complete all study data collection on or before January 2027.
Conclusions:
This study will provide evidence about the relative efficacy of employing a smartphone-delivered, MI intervention and real-time messaging to address triggers for hazardous alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors. The study has potential implications for advancing science and improving public health for a sub-population that is disproportionately stigmatized and disconnected from prevention research and services. Clinical Trial: NCT05576350
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