Digital components in interventions aiming to reduce or prevent alcohol use among young people: A scoping review.

Background: Alcohol use in young people remains a serious health concern in Europe. Previous studies suggest that multi-component interventions are effective in reducing alcohol use in young people. Since young people have high affinity for digital offers, including effective digital components can make interventions more appealing and engaging for young people. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying components and their underlying theoretical foundation that can be integrated into multi-component interventions to prevent or reduce alcohol use among young people.

Methods: This study aimed to provide an overview of existing digital substance use prevention components using scoping review methodology. CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and Web of Science were screened to identify relevant publications without any date limitations set. Inclusion was based on the PCC framework: population (young people between 12 and 21 years old), concept ((a) digital components of interventions AND (b) prevention OR reduction AND (c) alcohol and other drug use), and context (all contexts). Studies were selected after title/abstract and full-text screening by two independent authors. The extraction of data is currently ongoing.

Results: In total, 4,910 publications were identified. After removing duplicates and applying inclusion criteria to the full texts of eligible articles (n = 457) up to now 203 papers were included in the scoping review. Most of the included studies examined the efficacy of single digital interventions in (cluster) randomized controlled trials or pre-post designs whereas multi-component interventions were rare. Often (higher) education institutions such as schools or universities served as the intervention setting. Alcohol use was addressed in the majority of studies; only few studies focused on multi substance use. Most digital interventions were delivered web-based. The theoretical foundations comprised social norms approach, motivational interviewing, the provision of harm reduction strategies, and knowledge transfer/health literacy (results are preliminary). 

Conclusions: A variety of digital intervention components exists to reduce or prevent alcohol use among young people, many were proven to be at least partially effective but were not used in combination. Combining digital components or adding the components to non-digital interventions could optimize the effects and the acceptance of interventions in young people.