Emotive images depicting oro-facial injury increases brief alcohol intervention effectiveness

Objective: Alcohol misuse is implicated in oro-facial injury and disease, emphasising the need for reliable interventions. Evidence suggests that interventions stressing the consequences of misuse will be more effective if they include emotive pictures. However, risky alcohol misuse, and other behaviours detrimental to health, are associated with a disregard for future consequences, or having a steep temporal discounting function (TDF). The objective of the research presented here was to examine the effectiveness of emotive and non-emotive interventions in participants who varied in their TDF.

Methods: 40 male social drinkers, aged 18-25 years, recruited from the student population of Cardiff University, were randomly assigned to one of two brief alcohol interventions. Both interventions included the same written material covering the health consequences of alcohol misuse; however the emotive condition included images of oro-facial injury and disease. Participants reported the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumed for the seven days before and after their participation and completed a screening task that assessed their TDF.

Results: The dependant variable, change, was calculated through subtracting total units of alcohol consumed following the intervention from total units consumed before intervention. Participants were categorised by a steep or light TDF. Those in the emotional condition consumed significantly less alcohol (mean change = 6.39 units) than participants in the non-emotional condition (mean change = -2.17 units; t = 1.84, p < 0.05). Steep TDF participants who also received the emotional intervention decreased their alcohol consumption (8.55 units) significantly more than those in the non-emotional condition (-7.53; t = 2.20, p < 0.05). No significant difference, however, by group was observed for shallow TDF participants (t < 1).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that the inclusion of emotive images depicting oro-facial injury and disease may increase the effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions in risky social drinkers.