Has the increased participation in the national campaign ‘Dry January’ been associated with cutting down alcohol consumption in England?

Case, Philippa; Angus, Colin; Vocht, Frank de; Holmes, John; Michie, Susan; Brown, Jamie

doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108938

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…One of the studies was then excluded because of its experimental research design [ 16 ] as well as five Dry July Annual reports providing no answer to any of the four research questions. Six studies [ 17 – 22 ] and seven Dry July Annual reports [ 23 – 29 ] were finally included for the review (Fig. 1 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 ). The six studies were published between 2016 and 2021, five of them referred to Dry January [ 17 – 20 , 22 ], and one pertained to Febfast 2012 [ 21 ]. Characteristics of the reviewed studies and reports can be found in Table 1 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…34 adult drinkers at baseline recoded as Dry January registrants Three online questionnaires: at baseline, at 1-month follow-up, at 6-month follow-up/Background demographic data, 10-point scale to self-report concern about drinking effect on health and control over drinking, self-rated physical well-being (5-point Likert-scale), 7-item WEMWBS scale, DRSE scale, AUDIT-C** score Case et al 2021. [ 22 ] UK Dry January To assess whether the increase in participation in Dry January between 2015 and 2018 was associated with reduced alcohol consumption in England, independently of pre-existing seasonal variation Repeat cross-sectional design Respondents to the Alcohol Toolkit Study aged 16 + years in England/ n = 37,142 Data collected from March 2014 to January 2015 and March 2017 to January 2018, February excluded for both periods 1. Percentage of adults reporting drinking monthly or less frequently in the last 6 months (AUDIT-C) 2.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Significantly more likely to have tried to engage in more physical activity (48.7% vs. 23.8%, p < 0.01) or to improve their diet (52.3% vs. 28.2%, p < 0.01) 62.4% of successful respondents – Successful participants: increase in self-rated physical-health (baseline mean = 3.26, 95%CI [3.17; 3.35], 1-month follow-up mean = 3.47, 95%CI [3.39; 3.46], 6-month follow-up mean = 3.47, 95%CI [3.39; 3.56]), DRSE scores (baseline mean = 4.27, 95%CI [4.14; 4.40], 1-month follow-up mean = 4.86, 95%CI [4.73; 4.98], 6-month follow-up mean = 4.83, 95%CI [4.69; 4.96]), WEMWBS scores (baseline mean = 3.40, 95%CI [3.34; 3.47], 1-month follow-up mean = 3.77, 95%CI [3.71; 3.83], 6-month follow-up mean = 3.68, 95%CI [3.62; 3.74]), decrease in AUDIT-C scores (baseline mean = 8.89, 95%CI [8.65; 9.12], 6-month follow-up mean = 6.72, 95%CI [6.37; 7.07]). Unsuccessful participants: increase in self-rated physical-health (baseline mean = 3.12, 95%CI [3.01; 3.24], 1-month follow-up mean = 3.20, 95%CI [3.07; 3.32]), 6-month follow-up mean = 3.16, 95%CI [3.04; 3.28]), DRSE scores (baseline mean = 4.63, 95%CI [4.45; 4.82], 1-month follow-up mean = 5.04, 95%CI [4.88; 5.21], 6-month follow-up mean = 4.94, 95%CI [4.76; 5.12]), WEMWBS scores (baseline mean = 3.37, 95%CI [3.28; 3.47], 1-month follow-up mean = 3.56, 95%CI [3.48; 3.66], 6-month follow-up mean = 3.49, 95%CI [3.39; 3.58]), decrease in AUDIT-C scores (baseline mean = 6.82, 95%CI [6.37; 7.27], 6-month follow-up mean = 6.18, 95%CI [5.76; 6.59]) Official registrants: more likely to complete the challenge (69.8% vs. 30.2%, p < 0.01) Unofficial participants: 30.2% Dry January completion ( p < 0.01) Case et al 2021 [ 22 ] – – – (1) Percentage of adults reporting drinking monthly or less frequently: lower in January than non-January months both in 2014/2015 (46% vs. 49%) and 2017/2018 (45% vs. 51%), (2) Mean weekly alcohol consumption among drinkers: no significant differences between January and non-January months ( β ** = 0.23, 95%CI [− 0.11;0.58]) (3) Percentage of at-risk drinkers reporting a current attempt to restrict alcohol consumption: higher in January than non-January months in both 2014/15 (25% vs. 20%) and 2017/18 (27% vs. 19%). Odds of at-risk drinkers reporting current attempt to restrict consumption significantly higher in January vs. non-January (OR = 1.46, 95%CI [1.25;1.70]) (4) Percentage of at-risk drinkers citing Detox/Dry January as a motive in their most recent attempt to restrict alcohol consumption: higher in January than non-January months in both 2014/15 (13% vs. 4%) and 2017/18 (18% vs. 11%).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the UK, odds of at-risk drinkers reporting a current attempt to restrict alcohol consumption was significantly higher in January compared to the other months (OR = 1.46, 95%CI [1.25;1.70]), as were the odds of at-risk drinkers citing Dry January as a motive in their most recent attempt to restrict consumption (OR = 2.29, 95%CI [1.62;3.22]) [ 22 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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One-month alcohol abstinence national campaigns: a scoping review of the harm reduction benefits

et al. 2022

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Over the last decade, one-month alcohol abstinence campaigns (OMACs) have been implemented within the general population in an increasing number of countries. We identified the published studies reporting data on OMACs to explore the following aspects: profile of participants, rates and factors associated with the completion of the abstinence challenge, and outcomes and harm reduction benefits in participating in the challenges. We screened 322 records, including those found in the grey literature, and reviewed 6 studies and 7 Dry July Annual Reports. Compared to non-participating alcohol users, participants were more likely to be female, have a higher income, and a higher level of education. They were heavier drinkers and were more concerned by the consequences of alcohol on health and by their health in general. Participants who achieved the one-month abstinence challenge were lower drinkers and more likely to have registered on the campaign-related Internet communities. Both successful and unsuccessful participants frequently reported health benefits, including sleep improvement and weight loss. Successful participants were more likely to durably change their alcohol drinking habits. Overall, OMACs provide short- or mid-term harm reduction benefits for both successful and unsuccessful participants. Findings were limited by the paucity of studies, their observational nature, and heterogeneity in the features of the different national campaigns, which would probably gain in enhanced internationalization.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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One-month alcohol abstinence national campaigns: a scoping review of the harm reduction benefits

et al. 2022

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Characterizing Twitter chatter about temporary alcohol abstinence during “Dry January”

Russell,

Montemayor,

Chiang

et al. 2023

Alcohol and Alcoholism

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With roots as a public health campaign in the United Kingdom, “Dry January” is a temporary alcohol abstinence initiative encouraging participants to abstain from alcohol use during the month of January. Dry January has become a cultural phenomenon, gaining increasing news media attention and social media engagement. Given the utility of capturing naturalistic discussions around health topics on social media, we examined Twitter chatter about Dry January and associated temporary abstinence experiences. Public tweets were collected containing the search terms “dry january” or “dryjanuary” posted between 15 December and 15 February across 3 years (2020–2). A random subsample stratified by year (n = 3145) was pulled for manual content analysis by trained coders. Final codebook accounted for user sentiment toward Dry January, user account type, and themes related to Dry January participation. Engagement metadata (e.g. likes) were also collected. Though user sentiment was mixed, most tweets expressed positive or neutral sentiment toward Dry January (74.7%). Common themes included encouragement and support for Dry January participation (14.1%), experimentation with and promotion of nonalcoholic drinks (14.0%), and benefits derived from Dry January participation (10.4%). While there is promise in the movement to promote positive alcohol-related behavior change, increased efforts to deliver the campaign within a public health context are needed. Health communication campaigns designed to inform participants about evidence-based treatment and recovery support services proven to help people quit or cut down on their drinking are likely to maximize benefits.

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Using Natural Language Processing to Explore “Dry January” Posts on Twitter: Longitudinal Infodemiology Study

Russell¹,

Valdez²,

Chiang³

et al. 2022

J Med Internet Res

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Background Dry January, a temporary alcohol abstinence campaign, encourages individuals to reflect on their relationship with alcohol by temporarily abstaining from consumption during the month of January. Though Dry January has become a global phenomenon, there has been limited investigation into Dry January participants’ experiences. One means through which to gain insights into individuals’ Dry January-related experiences is by leveraging large-scale social media data (eg, Twitter chatter) to explore and characterize public discourse concerning Dry January. Objective We sought to answer the following questions: (1) What themes are present within a corpus of tweets about Dry January, and is there consistency in the language used to discuss Dry January across multiple years of tweets (2020-2022)? (2) Do unique themes or patterns emerge in Dry January 2021 tweets after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic? and (3) What is the association with tweet composition (ie, sentiment and human-authored vs bot-authored) and engagement with Dry January tweets? Methods We applied natural language processing techniques to a large sample of tweets (n=222,917) containing the term “dry january” or “dryjanuary” posted from December 15 to February 15 across three separate years of participation (2020-2022). Term frequency inverse document frequency, k-means clustering, and principal component analysis were used for data visualization to identify the optimal number of clusters per year. Once data were visualized, we ran interpretation models to afford within-year (or within-cluster) comparisons. Latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling was used to examine content within each cluster per given year. Valence Aware Dictionary and Sentiment Reasoner sentiment analysis was used to examine affect per cluster per year. The Botometer automated account check was used to determine average bot score per cluster per year. Last, to assess user engagement with Dry January content, we took the average number of likes and retweets per cluster and ran correlations with other outcome variables of interest. Results We observed several similar topics per year (eg, Dry January resources, Dry January health benefits, updates related to Dry January progress), suggesting relative consistency in Dry January content over time. Although there was overlap in themes across multiple years of tweets, unique themes related to individuals’ experiences with alcohol during the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic were detected in the corpus of tweets from 2021. Also, tweet composition was associated with engagement, including number of likes, retweets, and quote-tweets per post. Bot-dominant clusters had fewer likes, retweets, or quote tweets compared with human-authored clusters. Conclusions The findings underscore the utility for using large-scale social media, such as discussions on Twitter, to study drinking reduction attempts and to monitor the ongoing dynamic needs of persons contemplating, preparing for, or actively pursuing attempts to quit or cut down on their drinking.

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Has the increased participation in the national campaign ‘Dry January’ been associated with cutting down alcohol consumption in England?

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

One-month alcohol abstinence national campaigns: a scoping review of the harm reduction benefits

One-month alcohol abstinence national campaigns: a scoping review of the harm reduction benefits

Characterizing Twitter chatter about temporary alcohol abstinence during “Dry January”

Using Natural Language Processing to Explore “Dry January” Posts on Twitter: Longitudinal Infodemiology Study

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