Technology-based interventions to reduce substance use in women

Technology-based interventions for  women between 18 and 44 years old were found in a systematic review with meta-analysis (Hai et al., 2019, 15 studies, N = 3 488) to have an effect when compared to control conditions in:

• reducing substance use (alcohol and/or drugs) in the short term (follow-up ranged from 2 to 6 months) (d = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.35, 13 studies)

The effect size estimates calculated separately for alcohol use and illicit drug use were 0.13 and 0.30 respectively and neither was statistically significant possibly due to low power of the studies.

Interventions examined included brief interventions modeled after the motivational interviewing approach or involving  periodically sending participants text messages to provide educational information to reduce substance use.