Methodological Advances in Alcohol Research: Two Event-Level Pilot Studies of Drinking Behavior

Background: Many of the most common consequences of alcohol use (e.g., assault, injury) occur either during or directly after a single drinking event. Approximately a quarter of all unintentional injuries in the world are associated with the consumption of alcohol at the event-level. Despite the substantial impact these acute alcohol-related problems cause globally, alcohol research has historically failed to adequately capture the complexity of drinking events. Past research on drinking behavior has mostly relied on retrospective self-reported accounts or prospective observations and field interviews. These methods usually provide researchers with either an estimated peak BAC or an objective BAC sample at one point in time. Although point-estimates or peak values of one’s BAC are useful, this approach to measuring consumption is limited in providing useful data about the dynamical nature of alcohol consumption. Furthermore, past research usually ignores how multiple factors (i.e., one’s biology, motives, peer influence, and environment) interact to impact event-level intoxication. Fortunately, recent advances in technology (e.g., transdermal alcohol monitors) and the ubiquity of smartphones (utilized to survey participants during risky behavior) have provided researchers with new avenues to better measure the complex nature of drinking events. Approach: To that end, this article presents methodologies for measuring event-level alcohol consumption in two case studies. The first study assessed behavior during one particularly heavy drinking event (a college student bar crawl) with transdermal alcohol monitors, hourly ecological momentary assessments (EMA), and geospatial data. The second study followed natural groups of college friends for a period of time to measure multiple drinking events with the addition of continuous monitoring of physical activity, sleep, and heartrate. Conclusions: Data collection tools (i.e., transdermal monitors, Fitbits, EMA) in the context of each study are discussed as well as the complications that were experienced (e.g., missing surveys, inconsistent geospatial data). The lessons learned during these two pilot studies provide a building block for future work in this area, especially as data collection in alcohol research rapidly advances.