| 1. |
- Bendtsen, Marcus, et al.
(författare)
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Feasibility and user perception of a fully automated push-based multiple-session alcohol intervention for university students : randomized controlled trial.
- 2014
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Ingår i: JMIR mhealth and uhealth. - : JMIR Publications. - 2291-5222. ; 2:2, s. e30-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: In recent years, many electronic health behavior interventions have been developed in order to reach individuals with unhealthy behaviors, such as risky drinking. This is especially relevant for university students, many of whom are risky drinkers.OBJECTIVE: This study explored the acceptability and feasibility in a nontreatment-seeking group of university students (including both risk and nonrisk drinkers), of a fully automated, push-based, multiple-session, alcohol intervention, comparing two modes of delivery by randomizing participants to receive the intervention either by SMS text messaging (short message service, SMS) or by email.METHODS: A total of 5499 students at Luleå University in northern Sweden were invited to participate in a single-session alcohol assessment and feedback intervention; 28.04% (1542/5499) students completed this part of the study. In total, 29.44% (454/1542) of those participating in the single-session intervention accepted to participate further in the extended multiple-session intervention lasting for 4 weeks. The students were randomized to receive the intervention messages via SMS or email. A follow-up questionnaire was sent immediately after the intervention and 52.9% (240/454) responded.RESULTS: No difference was seen regarding satisfaction with the length and frequency of the intervention, regardless of the mode of delivery. Approximately 15% in both the SMS (19/136) and email groups (15/104) would have preferred the other mode of delivery. On the other hand, more students in the SMS group (46/229, 20.1%) stopped participating in the intervention during the 4-week period compared with the email group (10/193, 5.2%). Most students in both groups expressed satisfaction with the content of the messages and would recommend the intervention to a fellow student in need of reducing drinking. A striking difference was seen regarding when a message was read; 88.2% (120/136) of the SMS group read the messages within 1 hour in contrast to 45.2% (47/104) in the email group. In addition, 83.1% (113/136) in the SMS group stated that they read all or almost all the messages, compared with only 63.5% (66/104) in the email group.CONCLUSIONS: Based on the feedback from the students, an extended, multiple-session, push-based intervention seems to be a feasible option for students interested in additional support after a single-session alcohol intervention. SMS as a mode of delivery seems to have some advantages over email regarding when a message is read and the proportion of messages read. However, more students in the SMS group stopped the intervention than in the email group. Based on these promising findings, further studies comparing the effectiveness of single-session interventions with extended multiple-session interventions delivered separately or in combination are warranted.
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| 2. |
- Bendtsen, Marcus, 1982-
(författare)
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Feasibility of a Fully Automated Multiple Session Alcohol Intervention to University Students, Using Different Modes of Electronic Delivery : The TOPHAT 1 Study
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Software Engineering and Applications. - : Scientific Research Publishing. - 1945-3116 .- 1945-3124. ; :6, s. 14-26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: In recent years more and more electronic health behaviour interventions have been developed in order to reach individuals with an unhealthy behaviour such as risky drinking. This is especially relevant in university students who are among those who most frequently are risky drinkers. This study explored the acceptability and feasibility, in an unselected group of university students, of a fully automated multiple session alcohol intervention offering different modes of delivery such as email, SMS and Android.Material and Methods: A total of 11,283 students at Linköping University in Sweden were invited to perform a single session alcohol intervention and among those accepting this (4916 students) a total of 24.7% accepted to further participate in the extended multiple intervention lasting 3 - 6 weeks. The students could choose mode of delivery, total length of the intervention (between 3 - 6 weeks) and number of messages per week (3, 5, or 7 per week). A follow-up questionnaire was applied after the intervention to which 82.7% responded.Results: most students wanted to receive the messages by email with the shortest intervention length (3 weeks) and as few messages as possible per week (3 messages). However, no major difference was seen regarding satisfaction with the length and frequency of the intervention despite chosen length and frequency. Most students also expressed satisfaction with the content of the messages and would recommend the intervention to a fellow student in need of reducing drinking.Discussion and Conclusion: Based upon feedback from the students, a multiple push-based intervention appears to be feasible to offer additional help for those who have interest after a single session alcohol intervention. In a forthcoming study we will further explore the optimal mode of delivery and length of intervention and number of messages per week.
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| 3. |
- Bendtsen, Preben, et al.
(författare)
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Effectiveness of a proactive mail-based alcohol Internet intervention for university students: dismantling the assessment and feedback components in a randomized controlled trial
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Medical Internet Research. - : JMIR Publications Inc.. - 1438-8871. ; 14:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: University students in Sweden routinely receive proactive mail-based alcohol Internet interventions sent from student health services. This intervention provides personalized normative feedback on alcohol consumption with suggestions on how to decrease drinking. Earlier feasibility trials by our group and others have examined effectiveness in simple parallel-groups designs.Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of electronic screening and brief intervention, using a randomized controlled trial design that takes account of baseline assessment reactivity (and other possible effects of the research process) due to the similarity between the intervention and assessment content. The design of the study allowed for exploration of the magnitude of the assessment effects per se.Methods: This trial used a dismantling design and randomly assigned 5227 students to 3 groups: (1) routine practice assessment and feedback, (2) assessment-only without feedback, and (3) neither assessment nor feedback. At baseline all participants were blinded to study participation, with no contact being made with group 3. We approached students 2 months later to participate in a cross-sectional alcohol survey. All interventions were fully automated and did not have any human involvement. All data used in the analysis were based on self-assessment using questionnaires. The participants were unaware that they were participating in a trial and thus were also blinded to which group they were randomly assigned.Results: Overall, 44.69% (n = 2336) of those targeted for study completed follow-up. Attrition was similar in groups 1 (697/1742, 40.01%) and 2 (737/1742, 42.31% retained) and lower in group 3 (902/1743, 51.75% retained). Intention-to-treat analyses among all participants regardless of their baseline drinking status revealed no differences between groups in all alcohol parameters at the 2-month follow-up. Per-protocol analyses of groups 1 and 2 among those who accepted the email intervention (36.2% of the students who were offered the intervention in group 1 and 37.3% of the students in group2 ) and who were risky drinkers at baseline (60.7% follow-up rate in group 1 and 63.5% in group 2) suggested possible small beneficial effects on weekly consumption attributable to feedback.Conclusions: This approach to outcome evaluation is highly conservative, and small benefits may follow the actual uptake of feedback intervention in students who are risky drinkers, the precise target group.Trial Registration: International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN): 24735383; http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN24735383 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6Awq7gjXG)
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| 4. |
- McCambridge, Jim, et al.
(författare)
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Alcohol assessment and feedback by e-mail for university student hazardous and harmful drinkers: study protocol for the AMADEUS-2 randomised controlled trial
- 2013
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - : BioMed Central. - 1471-2458. ; 13:949
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Alcohol is responsible for a large and growing proportion of the global burden of disease, as well as being the cause of social problems. Brief interventions are one component of comprehensive policy measures necessary to reduce these harms. Brief interventions increasingly take advantage of the Internet to reach large numbers of high risk groups such as students. The research literature on the efficacy and effectiveness of online interventions is developing rapidly. Although many studies show benefits in the form of reduced consumption, other intervention studies show no effects, for reasons that are unclear. Sweden became the first country in the world to implement a national system in which all university students are offered a brief online intervention via an e-mail. Methods/Design: This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness of this national system comprising a brief online intervention among university students who are hazardous and harmful drinkers. This study employs a conventional RCT design in which screening to determine eligibility precedes random allocation to immediate or delayed access to online intervention. The online intervention evaluated comprises three main components; assessment, normative feedback and advice on reducing drinking. Screening is confined to a single question in order to minimise assessment reactivity and to prevent contamination. Outcomes will be evaluated after 2 months, with total weekly alcohol consumption being the primary outcome measure. Invitations to participate are provided by e-mail to approximately 55,000 students in 9 Swedish universities. Discussion: This RCT evaluates routine service provision in Swedish universities via a delay in offer of intervention to the control group. It evaluates effects in the key population for whom this intervention has been designed. Study findings will inform the further development of the national service provision.
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| 5. |
- McCambridge, Jim, et al.
(författare)
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Alcohol assessment and feedback by email for university students: main findings from a randomised controlled trial
- 2013
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Ingår i: British Journal of Psychiatry. - : Royal College of Psychiatrists. - 0007-1250 .- 1472-1465. ; 203:5, s. 334-340
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanBrief interventions can be efficacious in changing alcohol consumption and increasingly take advantage of the internet to reach high-risk populations such as students. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanAims less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanTo evaluate the effectiveness of a brief online intervention, controlling for the possible effects of the research process. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanMethod less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanA three-arm parallel groups design was used to explore the magnitude of the feedback and assessment component effects. The three groups were: alcohol assessment and feedback (group 1); alcohol assessment only without feedback (group 2); and no contact, and thus neither assessment nor feedback (group 3). Outcomes were evaluated after 3 months via an invitation to participate in a brief cross-sectional lifestyle survey. The study was undertaken in two universities randomising the email addresses of all 14 910 students (the AMADEUS-1 study, trial registration: ISRCTN28328154). less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanResults less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanOverall, 52% (n=7809) of students completed follow-up, with small differences in attrition between the three groups. For each of the two primary outcomes, there was one statistically significant difference between groups, with group 1 having 3.7% fewer risky drinkers at follow-up than group 3 (P=0.006) and group 2 scoring 0.16 points lower than group 3 on the three alcohol consumption questions from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) (P = 0.039). less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanConclusions less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanThis study provides some evidence of population-level benefit attained through intervening with individual students.
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| 6. |
- McCambridge, Jim, et al.
(författare)
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Alcohol email assessment and feedback study dismantling effectiveness for university students (AMADEUS-1): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
- 2012
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Ingår i: Trials. - : BioMed Central. - 1745-6215. ; 13:49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Alcohol causes huge problems for population health and for society, which require interventions with individuals as well as populations to prevent and reduce harms. Brief interventions can be effective and increasingly take advantage of the internet to reach high-risk groups such as students. The research literature on the effectiveness of online interventions is developing rapidly and is confronted by methodological challenges common to other areas of e-health including attrition and assessment reactivity and in the design of control conditions. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanMethods/design: The study aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief online intervention, employing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design that takes account of baseline assessment reactivity, and other possible effects of the research process. Outcomes will be evaluated after 3 months both among student populations as a whole including for a randomized no contact control group and among those who are risky drinkers randomized to brief assessment and feedback (routine practice) or to brief assessment only. A three-arm parallel groups trial will also allow exploration of the magnitude of the feedback and assessment component effects. The trial will be undertaken simultaneously in 2 universities randomizing approximately 15,300 students who will all be blinded to trial participation. All participants will be offered routine practice intervention at the end of the study. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanDiscussion: This trial informs the development of routine service delivery in Swedish universities and more broadly contributes a new approach to the study of the effectiveness of online interventions in student populations, with relevance to behaviors other than alcohol consumption. The use of blinding and deception in this study raise ethical issues that warrant further attention.
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| 7. |
- Bendtsen, Preben, et al.
(författare)
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Hazardous drinking concepts, limits and methods : Low levels of awareness, knowledge and use in the Swedish population
- 2011
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Ingår i: Alcohol and Alcoholism. - Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0735-0414 .- 1464-3502. ; 46:5, s. 638-645
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aims: To investigate the awareness and knowledge of hazardous drinking limits among the general population in Sweden and the extent to which people estimate their alcohol consumption in standard drinks to assess their level of drinking. Methods: A population-based study involving 6000 individuals selected from the total Swedish population was performed. Data were collected by means of a postal questionnaire. The mail survey response rate was 54.3% (n = 3200) of the net sample of 5891 persons. Results: With regard to drinking patterns, 10% of the respondents were abstainers, 59% were sensible drinkers and 31% were classified as hazardous drinkers. Most of the abstainers (80%), sensible drinkers (64%) and hazardous drinkers (56%) stated that they had never heard about the standard drink method. Familiarity with the hazardous drinking concept also differed between the three categories although 61% of sensible and hazardous drinkers expressed awareness of the concept (46% of the abstainers). Knowledge about the limits for sensible drinking was very poor. Between 94 and 97% in the three categories did not know the limit. There was a statistically significant association between having visited health care within the last 12 months and being aware of the standard drink method and the hazardous drinking concept, but not with knowing the hazardous drinking limits. Similarly, there was a significant association between having had at least one alcohol conversation in health care within the last 12 months and being aware of the standard drink method and the hazardous drinking concept, but not with knowing the hazardous drinking limits. Conclusion: The results can be seen as a major challenge for the health-care system and public health authorities because they imply that a large proportion of the Swedish population does not know when alcohol consumption becomes a threat to their health. The current strategy to disseminate knowledge about sensible drinking limits to the population through the health-care system seems to have failed and new means of informing the population are warranted. © The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Medical Council on Alcohol. All rights reserved.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Bendtsen, Preben, et al.
(författare)
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Referral to an electronic screening and brief alcohol intervention in primary health care in Sweden : Impact of staff referral to the computer
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications. - : Hindawi Limited. - 1687-6415 .- 1687-6423. ; 918763
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper was to evaluate whether primary health care staff's referral of patients to perform an electronic screening and brief intervention (e-SBI) for alcohol use had a greater impact on change in alcohol consumption after 3 month, compared to patients who performed the test on their own initiative. Staff-referred responders reported reduced weekly alcohol consumption with an average decrease of 8.4 grams. In contrast, self-referred responders reported an average increase in weekly alcohol consumption of 2.4 grams. Staff-referred responders reported a 49 reduction of average number of heavy episodic drinking (HED) occasions per month. The corresponding reduction for self-referred responders was 62. The differences between staff- and self-referred patient groups in the number who moved from risky drinking to nonrisky drinking at the followup were not statistically significant. Our results indicate that standalone computers with touchscreens that provide e-SBIs for risky drinking have the same effect on drinking behaviour in both staff-referred patients and self-referred patients. Copyright © 2011 Preben Bendtsen et al.
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| 10. |
- Carlfjord, Siw, et al.
(författare)
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Applying the RE-AIM framework to evaluate two implementation strategies used to introduce a tool for lifestyle intervention in Swedish primary health care
- 2012
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Ingår i: Health Promotion International. - : Oxford University Press. - 0957-4824 .- 1460-2245. ; 27:2, s. 167-176
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to evaluate two implementation strategies for the introduction of a lifestyle intervention tool in primary health care (PHC), applying the RE-AIM framework to assess outcome. A computer-based tool for lifestyle intervention was introduced in PHC. A theory-based, explicit, implementation strategy was used at three centers, and an implicit strategy with a minimum of implementation efforts at three others. After 9 months a questionnaire was sent to staff members (n= 159) and data from a test database and county council registers were collected. The RE-AIM framework was applied to evaluate outcome in terms of reach, effectiveness, adoption and implementation. The response rate for the questionnaire was 73%. Significant differences in outcome were found between the strategies regarding reach, effectiveness and adoption, in favor of the explicit implementation strategy. Regarding the dimension implementation, no differences were found according to the implementation strategy. A theory-based implementation strategy including a testing period before using a new tool in daily practice seemed to be more successful than a strategy in which the tool was introduced and immediately used for patients.
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