Department of Psychology , University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, Lexington, Kentucky.
Department of Mathematics and Statistics , Washington University in St. Louis College of Arts and Sciences, St. Louis, Missouri.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019 May;43(5):888-899. doi: 10.1111/acer.13987. Epub 2019 Mar 19.
Inhibitory control training and working memory training are 2 cognitive interventions that have been considered for alcohol use disorder (AUD). Existing studies have typically relied on small samples that preclude the evaluation of small effects. Crowdsourcing is a sampling method that can address these limitations by effectively and efficiently recruiting large samples with varying health histories. This study tested the feasibility and acceptability of delivering cognitive training interventions via crowdsourcing.
Participants with AUD were recruited from the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk) (ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT03438539). Following completion of a baseline survey, participants were randomized to an inhibitory control, working memory, or control training condition. Participants were asked to complete training tasks daily over a 2-week period. Follow-up assessments evaluating acceptability measures and alcohol and soda consumption were completed immediately following and 2 weeks after training.
Response rates were satisfactory over the 2-week intervention period (65% of training tasks completed), and performance on training tasks was consistent with expected effects. A majority of participants indicated that they were satisfied with the study procedures (94.6%), would participate again (97.4%), and would consider incorporating the training task in their daily life (81.1%). Modest reductions in alcohol consumption were observed (e.g., 0.5 drinking day/wk), primarily in the inhibitory control group, and these effects were selective to alcohol use and did not extend to soda consumption.
These findings demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of utilizing crowdsourcing methods for interventions development. Such a demonstration helps establish the crowdsourcing setting for future large sample studies testing novel interventions for AUD and other substance use disorders.
抑制控制训练和工作记忆训练是两种被认为可用于治疗酒精使用障碍（AUD）的认知干预措施。现有研究通常依赖于小样本，无法评估小效应。众包是一种采样方法，可以通过有效地招募具有不同健康史的大样本来解决这些局限性。本研究测试了通过众包提供认知训练干预的可行性和可接受性。
从众包网站 Amazon Mechanical Turk（mTurk）（ClinicalTrials.gov；NCT03438539）招募 AUD 参与者。在完成基线调查后，参与者被随机分配到抑制控制、工作记忆或对照训练条件。要求参与者在 2 周的时间内每天完成训练任务。在培训结束后立即和 2 周后进行后续评估，评估可接受性措施以及酒精和苏打水的消耗情况。
在 2 周的干预期间，应答率令人满意（完成了 65%的培训任务），并且培训任务的表现与预期效果一致。大多数参与者表示对研究程序满意（94.6%），愿意再次参加（97.4%），并愿意考虑将培训任务纳入日常生活（81.1%）。观察到酒精摄入量适度减少（例如，每周减少 0.5 个饮酒日），主要在抑制控制组中，这些效果是针对酒精使用的，不会扩展到苏打水的消费。
这些发现表明利用众包方法进行干预措施开发的可行性和可接受性。这种示范有助于为未来使用新型干预措施治疗 AUD 和其他物质使用障碍的大型样本研究建立众包环境。
