名人影响力和国家媒体报道对一款戒酒应用程序用户的影响：一项自然实验。

The impact of celebrity influence and national media coverage on users of an alcohol reduction app: a natural experiment.

作者信息

Garnett Claire, Perski Olga, Beard Emma, Michie Susan, West Robert, Brown Jamie

机构信息

Department of Behavioural Science and Health, University College London, London, WC1E 7HB, UK.

Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.

出版信息

BMC Public Health. 2021 Jan 6;21(1):30. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-10011-0.

DOI:10.1186/s12889-020-10011-0

PMID:33407283

原文链接:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7789329/

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Smartphone apps are increasingly used for health-related behaviour change and people discover apps through different sources. However, it is unclear whether users differ by mode of app discovery. Drink Less is an alcohol reduction app that received national media coverage in the UK caused by celebrity influence (a male TV and radio national broadcaster, aged 51). Our aim was to compare users who discovered the app before and after this coverage.

METHODS

A natural experiment assessing the impact of media coverage of Drink Less on users' socio-demographic and drinking characteristics, app engagement levels, and extent of alcohol reduction. The study period was from 17th May 2017 to 23rd January 2019, with media coverage starting on 21st August 2018. Users were 18 years or over, based in the UK and interested in drinking less. Interrupted time series analyses using Generalised Additive Mixed Models were conducted for each outcome variable aggregated at the weekly level.

RESULTS

In 66 weeks prior to the media coverage, 8617 users downloaded the app and 18,959 in 23 weeks afterwards. There was a significant step-level increase in users' mean age (B = 8.17, p < .001) and a decrease in the percentage of female users (B = -27.71, p < .001), though these effects dissipated non-linearly over time. No effect of media coverage was detected on employment type or on the percentage of at-risk drinkers, though the mean Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score was lower after the media coverage (B = -1.43, p = .031). There was a step-level increase in app engagement - number of sessions (B = 3.45, p = .038) and number of days used (B = 2.30, p = .005) - which continued to increase over time following quadratic trends.

CONCLUSIONS

Celebrity influence leading to national media coverage in the UK of the Drink Less app was associated with more people downloading the app who were male, older and engaged with the app; and did not appear to impact employment inequality.

摘要

背景

智能手机应用程序越来越多地用于与健康相关的行为改变，人们通过不同来源发现应用程序。然而，尚不清楚用户在应用程序发现模式上是否存在差异。“少饮酒”是一款减少酒精摄入的应用程序，因名人影响（一位51岁的男性国家电视和广播播音员）在英国获得了全国性媒体报道。我们的目的是比较在该报道之前和之后发现该应用程序的用户。

方法

一项自然实验，评估“少饮酒”媒体报道对用户社会人口统计学和饮酒特征、应用程序参与度以及酒精减少程度的影响。研究期间为2017年5月17日至2019年1月23日，媒体报道于2018年8月21日开始。用户年龄在18岁及以上，居住在英国且有减少饮酒的意愿。对每周汇总的每个结果变量使用广义相加混合模型进行中断时间序列分析。

结果

在媒体报道前的66周内，有8617名用户下载了该应用程序，之后的23周内有18959名用户下载。用户的平均年龄有显著的阶梯式增长（B = 8.17，p <.001），女性用户的百分比下降（B = -27.71，p <.001），不过这些影响随时间呈非线性消散。未检测到媒体报道对就业类型或高危饮酒者百分比有影响，不过媒体报道后酒精使用障碍识别测试的平均得分较低（B = -1.43，p =.031）。应用程序参与度有阶梯式增长——会话次数（B = 3.45，p =.038）和使用天数（B = 2.30，p =.005）——并且在二次趋势后随时间持续增加。