Providing personalized assessment feedback for problem drinking on the Internet:: A pilot project

Objective: This project developed an Internet program that conducts a brief assessment of an individual's drinking habits and then provides normative feedback comparing the user's drinking to that of others of the same gender and age group. The Internet program, "Try Our Free Drinking Evaluation," was based at the Addiction Research Foundation Internet web site (now at http://notes.camh.net/efeed.nsf/newform). Method: A voluntary survey linked to the participant's feedback summary collected respondents' impressions of the program. Results: During the trial period, the site received approximately 500 hits per month. While the feedback was generally well received, the weekly summary format was less credible to those individuals who drink less than once per week or whose consumption varies a great deal over time. Conclusions: Given these pilot results indicating that there is an audience for Internet-based interventions, the next step is to evaluate whether receiving such personalized feedback materials on the Internet lends to any change in drinking behavior by participants (J. Stud. Alcohol 61: 794-798, 2000).