How smartphone apps could be used to help tackle binge drinking

Researchers found drinkers who used the Smaart app reduced the average number of binge drinking days by around three days every month.

They were also able to cut the number of drinks by around 10%.

The study, published in The British Medical Journal (BMJ), comprised a team of researchers from London, Switzerland, New York and Canada.

They screened students from four universities in Switzerland and monitored 1,770 who had “unhealthy levels of alcohol use”, consuming an average of 8.59 alcoholic drinks a week, or drinking heavily for 3.53 days a month.

Heavy drinking was described as having at least five standard alcoholic drinks for men and four for women.

A standard alcoholic drink in Switzerland contains 10 to 12 grams of ethanol. The UK and US equivalents are 8 grams and 14 grams respectively.

The students were separated into two groups; an intervention group of 884 that was asked to download the Smaart app in return for a gift voucher, and a comparison group of 886 that were offered a gift voucher to fill in a questionnaire, but were offered no further support.

Additional vouchers were offered to students who filled out follow-up surveys at three, six and 12 months.

The app offered those in the intervention group information around the calorie content of alcoholic drinks, blood alcohol content and associated risks, as well as tool for self-monitoring and goal setting.

Those who downloaded the app used it up to 403 times over the year and reported a reduction in heavy drinking, consuming 10% fewer standard drinks a week and taking part in 11% fewer heavy drinking days a month.

Earlier this year, Office for Health and Improvement Disparities figures showed premature deaths from alcohol-related conditions led to a potential 1,575 years of life being lost in Portsmouth in 2020.

Of these, 1,008 (64%) were as a result of alcohol-related deaths among men, and 567 (36%) among women.

Across England, 293,980 years of life were lost due to alcohol-related conditions in males in 2020.

This fell to 138,060 years among females, though both are at their highest level since records began in 2016.

Potential years of life lost are calculated by multiplying the total number of alcohol-related deaths occurring at each age by the number of remaining years left to live, according to life expectancy estimates.