Claire Garnett

Claire Garnett stood next to her poster on understanding the motives, strategies and goals of alcohol reduction attempts among people who drink at risky levels in the UK

💬 Claire Garnett presented on the motives, strategies and goals of alcohol reduction attempts among people drinking at risky levels.

Five researchers from TARG stood in a line smiling.

TARG researchers @oliviamaynard.bsky.social, Angela Attwood, @c-stone.bsky.social, Oliver Bastiani and @clairevgarnett.bsky.social were in Newcastle last week for the Society for the Study of Addiction annual conference.

@kdeloyde.bsky.social‬ @ClaireVGarnett @JennFerrar @Clarke_NC1 @MarkAPilling @joe__matthews @OliviaMaynard17 @GJHollands @MarcusMunafo @AngelaAttwood

🔊Blog out today: How a simple swap led to lasting changes in pub and bars across South West England - What happened after the alcohol-free draught beer introduction study?
bit.ly/4mzFi7C

Project #4: Optimising uptake and personalisation of digital health interventions for under-served groups: a case study with the Drink Less app

With lead supervisor @clairevgarnett.bsky.social

gw4biomed.ac.uk/optimising-u...

GW4 BioMed MRC DTP - GW4 BioMed MRC DTP The GW4 BioMed MRC Doctoral Training Partnership is a collaboration between Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter Universities.

Looking for a MRC-funded PhD opportunity with TARG? We have four projects being advertised with @gw4biomeddtp.bsky.social (who have up to 17 4-year PhD studentships available for home & international students).
Applications close on 20 Oct 2025 at 5pm: gw4biomed.ac.uk

<em>British Journal of Health Psychology</em> | Wiley Online Library Objectives To explore whether people ‘other’ when making judgements about ‘harmful’ drinking and the drinking contexts (e.g., pub with friends) and features of drinking contexts (e.g., location, com.....

New paper! We used focus groups and arts-based methods to explore whether people ‘other’ when making judgements about harmful drinking and the drinking contexts and features of drinking contexts perceived as being indicative of harmful drinking. bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This was a huge team effort: @melissaoldham.bsky.social Gemma Loebenberg, Larisa Dina, Emma Beard, @victimofmaths.bsky.social Robyn Burton, @fieldmatt.bsky.social Felix Greaves, Matt Hickman, @eileenkaner.bsky.social @susanmichie.bsky.social Marcus Munafo, Elena Pizzo and @jamiebrown.bsky.social

Modeling the Potential Health, Health Economic, and Health Inequality Impact of a Large-Scale Rollout of the Drink Less App in England Alcohol places a significant burden on the National Health Service (NHS); yet, uptake of cost-effective approaches remains low. Digital interventions …

7️⃣ And last but not least, the health economic evaluation examining the cost-effectiveness of the Drink Less app and modelling the potential health, health economic and health inequality impact of a large-scale rollout of the app in England - www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Do engagement and behavioural mechanisms underpin the effectiveness of the Drink Less app? - npj Digital Medicine npj Digital Medicine - Do engagement and behavioural mechanisms underpin the effectiveness of the Drink Less app?

6️⃣ This article was the second part of the process evaluation focusing on the mechanisms of action, i.e. the psychological constructs and engagement with the intervention. This explored why and how the intervention was effective - www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Evaluating the Acceptability of the Drink Less App and the National Health Service Alcohol Advice Web Page: Qualitative Interview Process Evaluation Background: The extent to which interventions are perceived as acceptable to users impacts engagement and efficacy. Objective: In this study, we evaluated the acceptability of (1) the smartphone app D...

5️⃣ This was the first part of the process evaluation, focusing on the acceptability of the two interventions: Drink Less app and NHS website. These qualitative interviews were semi-structured and conducted with a subsample of participants - www.jmir.org/2024/1/e42319

Effectiveness of a smartphone app (Drink Less) versus usual digital care for reducing alcohol consumption among increasing-and-higher-risk adult drinkers in the UK: a two-arm, parallel-group, double-b... Digital interventions, including apps and websites, can be effective for reducing alcohol consumption. However, many are not evidence- or theory-infor…

4️⃣ This article reported the main trial findings and established the effectiveness of the Drink Less app at reducing alcohol consumption among increasing and higher-risk adult drinkers among the general population in the UK - www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bot or Not? Detecting and Managing Participant Deception When Conducting Digital Research Remotely: Case Study of a Randomized Controlled Trial Background: Evaluating digital interventions using remote methods enables the recruitment of large numbers of participants relatively conveniently and cheaply compared with in-person methods. However,...

3️⃣ This article used our remotely conducted trial as a case study to highlight and discuss (1) the issues with participant deception relating to financial compensation, and (2) the importance of rigorous data management to detect and address these issues - www.jmir.org/2023/1/e46523

Methodological Insights on Recruitment and Retention From a Remote Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Effectiveness of an Alcohol Reduction App: Descriptive Analysis Study Background: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with no in-person contact (ie, remote) between researchers and participants offer savings in terms of cost and time but present unique challenges. Objec...

2️⃣ Here we presented methodological insights from the trial in terms of recruitment and retention strategies, highlighting how different sources of remote recruitment compare in terms of cost-effectiveness, retention rates, data quality and demographic diversity - formative.jmir.org/2024/1/e51839

Evaluating the effectiveness of the smartphone app, Drink Less, compared with the NHS alcohol advice webpage, for the reduction of alcohol consumption among hazardous and harmful adult drinkers in the... Background and Aims Digital interventions are effective for reducing alcohol consumption but evidence is limited regarding smartphone apps. Drink Less is a theory- and evidence-informed app to help .....

1️⃣ This was the protocol, outlining the background for the trial, the methods and the analysis plan - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Screenshot of the first page of a NIHR synopsis report titled "Evaluating the effectiveness of the Drink Less smartphone app for reducing alcohol consumption compared with usual digital care: a comprehensive synopsis from a 6-month follow-up RCT"

Image showing project flowchart of seven components. RA=research article.

🚨📄 The final synopsis from our evaluation of the effectiveness of the Drink Less app has now been published on the NIHR Journals Library website, available here: www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/phr/LNNB8060 - this draws together all seven of the published scientific papers relating to the award...

I presented (and got really useful feedback on) the first study as part of my NIHR fellowship on the motives for making alcohol reduction attempts, reasons not to, strategies used and goals set among adults who drink at risky levels in the UK.

Had a fabulous time at my first KBS conference #KBS2025. Huge thanks to @kettilbruunsociety.bsky.social and everyone involved in organising it from Stirling and Glasgow for such an interesting, well organised and friendly conference to attend.

Looking for people aged 18-30 in the UK to take part in research about attitudes towards people who use drugs. For more information, and to sign up please see here: bristolexppsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

New paper shows smoking, and to a lesser extent non-combustible nicotine use, is associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption and risky drinking

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Screenshot of ARCR website that reads "This site can't be reached"

The peer-reviewed NIAAA journal, Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, and all of the previously open access papers published in the journal have been removed from the web. arcr.niaaa.nih.gov/about-arcr

What's Happening Inside the NIH and NSF

An informative yet depressing read about what's going on inside NIH in the US

"...said changes [...] are an outrage, a vindictive ideological assault on agencies that (for all their flaws) have helped produce major scientific advances in more fields than I can name."
www.science.org/content/blog...

Today ONS have published data on alcohol-specific deaths across the UK in 2023. We already knew most of the figures, but there are a few new bits of detail in today's release.

The headline is that alcohol deaths have risen to their highest level on record. Which is obviously pretty bleak.

I hope so as I’d love to share the link! Brilliant talk, thank you 🙏

I'm attending in person (really looking forward to it!) and got this message: "This is an in-person event at the City Hall and will not be streamed. There will be live BSL translation of the event and a transcription will be available afterwards." so I don't think there'll be a video recording of it

🚨 New paper out on the effect of a large-scale rollout of the Drink Less app expertly led by @victimofmaths.bsky.social and funded by @nihr.bsky.social

Full paper available here: www.valueinhealthjournal.com/article/S109...

Great thread from Colin below....

Brilliant paper and expertly led, Colin! Great graphs too 👏

Some nice coverage of our new study from the BBC here

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We've got another new study out. This one uses new modelling to estimate how two alternative approaches to increasing the uptake of the Drink Less app (a mass media campaign and promotion through primary care) might affect alcohol consumption, health and health inequalities in the longer term

Taking pleasure seriously: Should alcohol research say more about fun? Background This paper invites discussion on whether pleasure should receive more attention in public health-oriented research on alcohol. While there is a history of sociological and anthropological...

New 'For debate' paper in @addictionjournal.bsky.social in which we ask whether alcohol research needs to take pleasure more seriously. It's an invitation to discuss, so I'd be interested to hear views!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...