Text-based Messaging Strategies for Intervention

Effectiveness preventing subsequent problematic alcohol use among technical trainees in the U.S. Air Force

Dr. Meghan McDevitt-Murphy, professor of Psychology, and her collaborators at the University of Memphis and the University of Virginia have received an R01 award from the National Institutes of Health for 5-year project to develop and test a large-scale intervention to prevent hazardous alcohol use throughout the United States Air Force. Alcohol misuse (to include underage drinking, as well as other violations of the Department of Defense’s alcohol-related policies) is a significant threat to military readiness and has been declared a “public health crisis” by the Institute of Medicine. Therefore, it is essential that the military implement practices aimed at reducing hazardous alcohol use.

McDevitt-Murphy and Dr. James Murphy, professor in Psychology, are working with a team of collaborators from the University of Virginia to develop intervention materials that will be delivered to 3,000 Air Force personnel in this new study. McDevitt-Murphy and Murphy have worked with this team on a prior project and found that a group-administered motivational intervention was effective for preventing alcohol-related incidents across the US Air Force. The newly funded study will test whether the effectiveness of a group-administered motivational intervention is improved when it is followed by personalized text messages (as a “booster”). The booster text messages will highlight information from the group intervention and may help to remind participants of their goals and intentions related to alcohol use over the months following the group intervention.

Follow-up data will be collected at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months following the group intervention. The project will be carried out at three large Air Force bases (AFB), including Joint Base San Antonio in San Antonio, TX, Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas and Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi. The research team hopes that this project will result in effective interventions that could ultimately be disseminated throughout the Department of Defense, to reduce the harm associated with alcohol misuse.

For more information on this project, contact McDevitt-Murphy at mmcdvttm@memphis.edu.