Skills-training for Reducing Risky Alcohol Use in App Form

This study evaluates the efficacy of a skills training web-based mobile phone application, Telecoach among individuals in the general population seeking help for their risky alcohol consumption on the Internet. The design is a two-armed randomized controlled design, and outcomes are measured in terms of changes in excessive alcohol use at follow up 6, 12 and 26 weeks after study initiation and baseline data gathering. Individuals seeking help for problematic alcohol use on the internet will get access to a webpage with information about the study. Individuals leaving informed consent are asked to fill out questionnaires about alcohol use, depression, anxiety and information on gender and weight. Those with excessive alcohol use (\>14 standard glasses/week for men and \> 9 for women) are randomized into one of two groups: 1. Access to the Telecoach web-app and 2. Access to a control condition with an information-providing web-app. Outcomes on alcohol use are gathered by electronic self-registration at 6, 12 and 26 weeks after study initiation. Additional questions on the users' satisfaction with the app assigned to them and other support for problematic alcohol used during the research period at 26 weeks. The Telecoach web-app is a skills-training app developed for use on a mobile smart-phone. The skills-training components are common to psychosocial treatment protocols for problematic alcohol consumption. The control condition web-app is a simple text-based app providing information on the effects of alcohol on the consumers' health. Outcomes will be reported, analyzed and discussed in a scientific article.