Reducing undergraduate drinking

Using the web could reduce drinking by undergraduate students, according to Curtin researchers.

Published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a prestigious journal from the American Medical Association, the research was conducted by Mr Jonathan Hallett (Project Manager), Professor Peter Howat, Professor Bruce Maycock and Associate Professor Alexandra McManus from Curtin's School of Public Health and Dr Kypros Kypri from University of Newcastle.

The team found that heavy undergraduate drinkers who received intervention through a website drank 17 per cent less alcohol than control subjects one month after screening, and 11 per cent less after six months.

Intervention consisted of 10 minutes of motivational assessment and personalised feedback through the website, called THRIVE (Tertiary Health Research Intervention via Email).

The researchers noted that the differences in overall alcohol consumption were mainly driven by reductions in the frequency of drinking, but there were also small reductions in the amount of alcohol consumed per drinking episode.

The intervention also prompted students with unhealthy alcohol use to seek help to moderate their drinking.