Who to Target for Brief e-Health Interventions

Brief e-health interventions are an exciting method for treatment because (1) they can be easily sent out to a large group of people to prevent or intervene early with little clinician engagement (e.g., to an incoming cohort of university students) and (2) they can be used to screen and treat a broad range of people who drink as the feedback can be tailored to different drinking levels. Although they are promising, it is important to note that e-health interventions may be more accessible to certain populations (e.g., those with mobile devices, younger people with greater digital literacy) and less accessible to others (e.g., homeless, elderly people with poorer digital literacy). Furthermore, certain drinking groups may show a greater preference for e-health interventions than others (e.g., those who score lower on the AUDIT prefer e-health interventions compared to those who score higher). However, this is ideal as while there is evidence that brief e-health interventions are effective for treating individuals who are drinking above recommended limits, those who are drinking hazardously, with heavy episodic use, there is less evidence to suggest that  they may be an effective treatment option for individuals recovering from AUDs and longer interventions are likely required to treat this additional level of severity of alcohol use problem.