BRIEF ONLINE INTERVENTION TO REDUCE HEAVY ALCOHOL USE AMONG YOUNG VETERANS (COMPLETED)
NIAAA R34 AA022400 PI Pedersen
This study was conducted in two phases with the main goal of developing and testing a very brief online program to reduce heavy alcohol use among young adult veterans in the United States.
In the first phase, we examined how the social media website Facebook could be used to reach veterans in the community for the intervention effort. Although veterans are an at-risk group for heavy drinking and mental health problems, few seek care. Thus, we were able to document that targeted Facebook advertisements can be used to reach out to veterans and provide them with an alcohol reduction program that they likely would not have received otherwise.
In the second phase, we used the data we collected from participants in the first phase to develop a personalized normative feedback intervention. This intervention was very brief and online, and showed young veterans information to correct their misperceptions about the drinking behavior of their peers. For example, in the intervention, young veterans would be asked how much they believe other veterans like themselves drink alcohol. Then, they would view information about veterans like themselves that showed them that other veterans do not drink as much as they think they do. This is important because much research has documented that perceptions about how much others drink is a major factor contributing to how much one drinks themselves. Thus, correcting these misperceptions has been a primary strategy for reducing drinking among young people. These norms correction strategies have mostly been tested with college students or other non-veteran young adult groups, and when they have been tested with veterans they have been tested within much lengthier, multicomponent interventions. Our study was the first to test the norms correction strategy alone with young veterans using an online design meant to reach veterans in the community through recruitment on Facebook.
In our study, we found that this very brief, online personalized normative feedback intervention was successful in reducing drinking behavior and alcohol-related consequences among the veterans who received the intervention. Half of the veterans in our study were randomized to receive the intervention and half were randomized to receive a control condition, where they viewed information that was not related to their peers’ drinking behavior. We found that intervention participants reported that they drank fewer overall drinks per week, drank fewer drinks per drinking occasion, engaged in fewer instances of binge drinking, and experienced fewer alcohol-related consequences in the month following the intervention than the participants in the control condition did.
The findings were very promising and documented that, at least in the short term, the very brief online intervention helped young veterans reduce their drinking and alcohol-related consequences. The use of Facebook to reach veterans outside of treatment settings is a novel and innovative contribution of this project. We hope to continue these research efforts as we test the long-term effects of the intervention and examine how the approach can be used to help veterans with chronic drinking and mental health problems, perhaps by helping to increase their engagement in both in-person and online treatment approaches.
Publications
Brooks Holliday, S., & Pedersen, E. R. The association between discharge status, mental health, and substance misuse among young adult veterans. Psychiatry Research, 256, 428-434, 2017. PMCID: PMC5603389. View in PubMed
Brooks Holliday, S. Pedersen, E. R., & Leventhal, A. Depression, posttraumatic stress, and alcohol misuse in young adult veterans: The transdiagnostic role of distress tolerance. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 161, 148-155, 2016. PMCID: PMC4792662. View in PubMed
Grant, S., Pedersen, E. R., & Neighbors, C. Associations of PTSD symptoms with marijuana and synthetic cannabis use among young adult U.S. veterans: A pilot investigation. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 77, 509-514, 2016. PMCID: PMC4869907. View in PubMed
Grant, S., Spears, A., & Pedersen, E. R. Video games as a potential modality for behavioral health services for young adult veterans: Exploratory analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 6, e.15, 2018. PMCID: PMC6085553. View in PubMed
Gutner, C. A., Pedersen, E. R., & Drummond, S. P. Going direct to the consumer: Examining treatment preferences for veterans with insomnia, PTSD, and depression. Psychiatry Research, 263, 108-114, 2018. PMCID: PMC5911221. View in PubMed
Krieger, H., Pedersen, E. R., & Neighbors, C. The impact of normative perceptions on alcohol consumption in young adult military veterans. Addiction, 112, 1765-1772, 2017. PMCID: PMC5653214. View in PubMed
Kulesza, M., Pedersen, E. R., Corrigan, P. W., & Marshall, G. N. Help seeking stigma and mental health treatment seeking among young adult veterans. Military Behavioral Health, 3, 230-239, 2015. PMCID: PMC4672863. View in PubMed
Miller, M. B., DiBello, A. M., Carey, K. B., Borsari, B., & Pedersen, E. R. Insomnia severity as a mediator of the association between mental health symptoms and alcohol use in young adult veterans. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 177, 221-227, 2017. PMCID: PMC5536856. View in PubMed
Miller, M. B., DiBello, A. M., Carey, K. B., & Pedersen, E. R. Insomnia moderates the association between alcohol use and consequences among young adult veterans. Addictive Behaviors, 75, 59-63, 2017. PMCID: PMC5581984. View in PubMed
Miller, M. B., DiBello, A. M., Carey, K. B., & Pedersen, E. R. Blackouts as a moderator of young adult veteran response to personalized normative feedback for heavy drinking. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 42, 1145-1153, 2018. PMCID: PMC5984157. View in PubMed
Miller, S. M., Pedersen, E. R., & Marshall, G. N. Combat experience and problem drinking in veterans: Exploring the roles of PTSD, coping motives, and perceived stigma. Addictive Behaviors, 66, 90-95, 2017. PMCID: PMC5177488. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., Helmuth, E.D., Marshall, G.N., Schell, T.L., PunKay, M., & Kurz, J. Using Facebook to recruit young adult veterans: Online mental health research. JMIR Research Protocols, 4, e63, 2015. PMCID: PMC4526897. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., Hummer, J. F., Rinker, D. V., Traylor, Z. K., & Neighbors, C. Measuring protective behavioral strategies for marijuana use among young adults. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 77, 441–450, 2016. PMCID: PMC4869900. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., & Kurz, J. Using Facebook for health-related research study recruitment and program delivery. Current Opinion in Psychology, 9, 38-43, 2016. PMCID: PMC4697271. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., Marshall, G. N., & Kurz, J. Behavioral health treatment receipt among a community sample of young adult veterans. Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 44, 536-550, 2017. PMCID: PMC5436955. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., Marshall, G. N., & Schell, T. L. Study protocol for a web-based personalized normative feedback alcohol intervention for young adult veterans. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 11, 1-15, 2016. PMCID: PMC4815135. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., Marshall, G. N., Schell, T. L., & Neighbors, C. Young adult veteran perceptions of peers’ drinking behavior and attitudes. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30, 39-51, 2016. PMCID: PMC4752419. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., Naranjo, D., & Marshall, G. N. Recruitment and retention of young adult veteran drinkers using Facebook. PLOS One,12(3), e0172972, 2017. PMCID: PMC5332067. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., Parast, L., Marshall, G. N., Schell, T. L., & Neighbors, C. A randomized controlled trial of a web-based personalized normative feedback alcohol intervention for young adult veterans. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 85, 459-470, 2017. PMCID: PMC5398915. View in PubMed
Pedersen, E. R., Villarosa-Hurlocker, M., & Prince, M. A. Use of protective behavioral strategies among young adult veteran marijuana users. Cannabis, 1, 14-27, 2018. PMCID: PMC5947861. View in PubMed
Young, C., Pedersen, E. R., Pearson, A., & Neighbors, C. Drinking to cope moderates the efficacy of changing veteran drinking norms as a strategy for reducing drinking among U.S. veterans. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 32, 213-223, 2018. PMID: 29369674. View in PubMed