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Alcohol MisuseNCT05018624

Alcohol Brief Intervention Integrated With Mobile Chat-based Support for Risky Drinkers in Emergency Departments

A study testing Alcohol brief intervention, 12-page health warning leaflet and Regular messages through Instant Messaging (IM) in people with Alcohol Misuse, run by The University of Hong Kong at 1 site in Hong Kong.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of chat-based intervention on reducing risky alcohol consumption to inform clinical practice for providing ABI to risky drinkers attending AED in Hong Kong. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
Conditions the study is for
Alcohol Misuse
What is being tested?
Alcohol brief intervention, 12-page health warning leaflet and Regular messages through Instant Messaging (IM)
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
632 participants
Where
1 siteHong Kong
Study dates
23 May 2022to 31 Mar 2025
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • Healthy volunteers accepted
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • HK resident able to read/communicate in Cantonese/Putonghua. This may exclude potential subjects from other countries with higher alcohol consumption than local Chinese, but quality of the chat-based intervention is important for the research hypothesis, and it will not be feasible to recruit other language speakers (e.g., English) in the present study.
  • Aged ≥18 with proficiency in using IM Apps (e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat). Those aged <18 are excluded as other studies suggest they have different patterns of alcohol drinking and reduction from adult drinkers.

Who cannot join

  • Those unable to understand or receive face-to-face ABI due to severe traumatic injury, unconscious, or drunk patients unable to follow commands
  • Anticipated to be admitted to in-patient department for >1 week, which will interfere with the chat-based intervention
  • Having psychiatric/psychological diseases or receiving regular psychotropic medication
  • Participating in other alcohol reduction or abstinence programmes

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

Hong Kong1 site

  • School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong

    Hong Kong, 000

Other trials in Hong Kong

About this study

Official title: Alcohol Brief Intervention Integrated With Mobile Chat-based Support for Risky Drinkers in Emergency Departments: a Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of chat-based intervention on reducing risky alcohol consumption to inform clinical practice for providing ABI to risky drinkers attending AED in Hong Kong.

Read the detailed description

Alcohol use is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases and 6th leading cause of death and disability-adjusted life years. The prevalence of alcohol consumption has increased since 2008 after introduction of zero tax on alcohol with strength <30% (e.g., wine and beer) and due to promoting the city as Asia's wine hub. ABI reduced alcohol intake by about 20g/week at 12-month follow-up in primary healthcare populations. Given the relatively low prevalence of risky alcohol drinkers in Hong Kong, testing ABI in clinics may face difficulties in recruitment. Alcohol use is associated with problems such as injury and violence requiring accident and emergency department (AED) services, thus AEDs in Hong Kong are more feasible places to recruit subjects for delivering ABI.

Primary hypothesis: The Intervention group has significantly larger reduction of weekly alcohol consumption compared with the Control group at 12-month follow-up

Secondary hypotheses: Compared with the Control group, the Intervention group has lower AUDIT scores, fewer episodes of heavy/binge drinking, lower re-attendence at AED and reduced alcohol-related harms at 6-month and 12-month follow-up.

Conditions
Alcohol Misuse
Being tested
Alcohol brief intervention, 12-page health warning leaflet, Regular messages through Instant Messaging (IM), Real-time chat-based support through IM Apps, AUDIT score interpretation sheet adapted from the Department of Health of Hong Kong
Keywords
Chat-based IM, Alcohol brief intervention, AED, AUDIT

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Alcohol brief interventionBehavioural

    At baseline, subjects will receive face-to-face or online alcohol brief intervention developed based on the guideline by the World Health Organisation in 5-10 minutes

  • 12-page health warning leafletBehavioural

    Nurses will provide information about the consequences of drinking using a 12-page health warning booklet. Benefits of reducing and quit drinking will be emphasized by focusing on improving their perception towards the impacts on health, social problems, risky behaviors, academic performance and financial issues.

  • Regular messages through Instant Messaging (IM)Behavioural

    A total of 26 e-messages will be scheduled: once daily for the first week, 3 time/week for subsequent 4 weeks and 1 time/week for the remaining 7 weeks. The frequency will be adjusted according to IM Apps conversation and subject's requests.

  • Real-time chat-based support through IM AppsBehavioural

    The chat-based IM support is the extension of baseline ABI and regular e-messages, which aims to provide real-time behavioral and psychosocial support to reduce or quit drinking. It will be personalized according to the subjects' characteristics (gender, drinking pattern and alcoholic drinks preferences), intention to drink and specific questions regarding drinking. Through real-time chatting (text and/or voice), drinkers can acquire information on consequences of drinking and gain social support immediately to reduce intention to drink and alcohol consumption.

  • AUDIT score interpretation sheet adapted from the Department of Health of Hong KongBehavioural

    a diagram explaining drinking behaviour and potential health risks, definitions of "alcohol unit" and "binge drinking", and advise on limiting daily drinking to 2 alcohol units for men and 1 unit for women

Study groups in NCT05018624
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Intervention groupExperimentalAlcohol brief intervention, leaflets, regular personalized messages on ABI through IM Apps, real-time chat-based support through IM Apps
Receives: Behavioral: Alcohol brief intervention; Behavioral: 12-page health warning leaflet; Behavioral: Regular messages through Instant Messaging (IM); Behavioral: Real-time chat-based support through IM Apps; Behavioral: AUDIT score interpretation sheet adapted from the Department of Health of Hong Kong
control groupActive comparatorAlcohol brief intervention, leaflets, regular messages on general health through SMS
Receives: Behavioral: Alcohol brief intervention; Behavioral: 12-page health warning leaflet; Behavioral: AUDIT score interpretation sheet adapted from the Department of Health of Hong Kong

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Amount of alcohol consumption per week (gram/week) at 12-month follow-up

    Assessed by unit in gram and compare the alcohol consumption between intervention and control group at 12-month after baseline.

    Measured: 12-month after baseline

  2. Compare the primary outcome using intention-to-treat (ITT), per-protocol (PP) and as-treated (AP) analysis with Compliance Average Causal Effect (CACE) analysis

    To estimate large, moderate and null (same as the control) treatment effects and check whether ITT, AP and PP analysis estimates are biased compared with CACE estimates (alcohol consumption per week at 6-month follow-up)

    Measured: 6-month after baseline

Secondary outcomes (9)

  1. Amount of alcohol consumption per week (gram/week) at 3- and 6-month follow-ups

    Assessed by unit in gram and compare the alcohol consumption between intervention and control group at 3- and 6-month after baseline.

    Measured: 3 and 6 months after baseline

  2. AUDIT scores at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups

    Assessed by Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (ranged 0-40 with higher score indicating problematic alcohol use) and compare the AUDIT between intervention and control group at 3-, 6- adn 12-month after baseline.

    Measured: 3, 6 and 12 months after baseline

  3. Number of standard drinks (10g of alcohol) per week at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups

    Assessed by either increase or decrease in standard drinks number and compared between intervention and control group at 3-, 6-, and 12-month

    Measured: 3, 6 and 12 months after baseline

  4. Episode of binge drinking in the past 30-day at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups

    Defined by 5 standard drink [male] or 4 standard drink [female] in one occasion for binge drinking and compared between intervention and control group at 3-, 6-, and 12-month

    Measured: 3, 6, and 12 months after baseline

  5. Episode of heavy drinking in the past 30-day at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups

    Defined by 15 standard drink [male] or 8 standard drink[female] in a week for heavy drinking and compared between intervention and control group at 3-, 6-, and 12-month

    Measured: 3, 6, and 12 months after baseline

  6. Planned drinking measured in the coming 30-day at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups

    Compare the number of planned drinking (yes or no) between intervention group and control group at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups

    Measured: 3, 6, and 12 months after baseline

  7. Re-attendance of AED at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups

    Ask for attendance of AED (yes/no) in the past 3 months at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups

    Measured: 3, 6, and 12 months after baseline

  8. Health status of participants at 12-month

    Measured by EQ-5D-5L. Comprises five dimensions (MOBILITY, SELF-CARE, USUAL ACTIVITIES, PAIN /DISCOMFORT and ANXIETY / DEPRESSION), each dimension has five response levels:no problems, slight problems, moderate problems, severe problems, unable to/extreme problems. The participant is asked to indicate his/her health state by checking the box next to the most appropriate response level. Responses are coded as single-digit numbers expressing the severity level selected in each dimension. Extreme problem is coded as 5, severe problem is coded as 4, moderate is coded as 3, slight problem is coded as 2 and no problem is coded as 1.

    Measured: 12 months after baseline

  9. Current health of participants at 12-month

    Measured by EQ VAS. Participant is asked to rate his/her health on a vertical visual analogue scale. The scale is numbered from 0-100.100 means the best health, 0 is the worst. Participant will put a "cross" on the scale to indicate his/her current health.

    Measured: 12 months after baseline

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted24 Aug 2021
  2. Study start23 May 2022
  3. Primary completion30 Sep 2024
  4. Study completion31 Mar 2025

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomised
Intervention model
Parallel groups
Masking
Double blind
Who is masked
Investigator, Outcomes assessor
Enrolment
632 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT05018624
Sponsor's protocol ID
Chat-based ABI (AED)
Status last verified
Jul 2025
First submitted
18 Aug 2021
Last updated
1 Aug 2025
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing Alcohol brief intervention, 12-page health warning leaflet and Regular messages through Instant Messaging (IM) in people with Alcohol Misuse, run by The University of Hong Kong at 1 site in Hong Kong.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 2 inclusion and 4 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 1 Aug 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in Hong Kong. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Amount of alcohol consumption per week (gram/week) at 12-month follow-up (time frame: 12-month after baseline). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT05018624.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 1 Aug 2025; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 27 Oct 2026.

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