Preliminary results on the impact of one-month alcohol abstinence challenge on mental health

Background:

Consumption of alcohol in Hungary is among the highest in EU. ’Dry November’ is an annual Facebook campaign (organized by an NGO) which asks people to go booze-free for a month. Our study aimed to examine the impact of this month on mental health and alcohol consumption of the participants.

Methods:

Participants could anonymously register to our survey and later were invited to answer a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the month. Pre and post survey measured self-reported mental health symptoms (GHQ-12) and well-being (WHO-WBI), self-reported alcohol use and drinking motives (AUDIT and DMQ-R).

Results:

764 people registered to our survey and 467 completed the first round (response rate: 61.12%; 49.6% female; mean age: 34.28 y, SD: 9.79). Altogether 151 people fulfilled both the pre-test and the post-test, 69% (n = 105) succeeded the challenge while 31% (n = 36) did not. Regardless of the success, all participants reported significant improvement in wellbeing (succeeded: Cohen’s d = 0.52, not succeeded: d = 0.72) and in mental health symptoms (succeeded: d = 0.63, not succeeded: d = 0.58) Even among those who failed on the challenge, AUDIT score decreased significantly (d = 0.64)

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that participation in abstinence challenges such as ‘Dry November’ may improve self-rated mental health regardless of success or failure. Our preliminary results also indicate that alcohol consumption decreases even among those who fail to complete the whole month.

Key messages:

• A one-month alcohol-free challenge is an effective tool for reducing alcohol consumption.

• Participation in a one-month alcohol-free challenge improves mental wellbeing.