Introduction and Validation of an Ecological Momentary Assessment Methodology to Measure Alcohol Use Among College Students

Sina Kianersi, Maria Parker, Christina Ludema, Jon Agley and Molly Rosenberg

SAGE Open, 2024, vol. 14, issue 2, 21582440241256531

Abstract: Retrospective alcohol use data are prone to recall bias, a limitation that could be addressed with real-time ecological momentary assessment (EMA) tools. We aimed to (1) introduce a simple (single-click) EMA methodology for collecting real-time alcohol use data, and (2) investigate the EMA methodology’s performance relative to established alcohol use data collection tools. In March–April 2021, we sampled undergraduate students ( n  = 84) and collected a week of alcohol use data. Participants entered their real-time drinking start times using our EMA methodology, self-reported their drinking details in daily surveys, and a subsample recorded their breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) using smart breathalyzers. We estimated the accuracy of our EMA methodology in collecting alcohol use data relative to data collected by daily surveys and breathalyzers. Overall, 199 drinking events were recorded with the EMA methodology. Numbers of drinks recorded with the EMA methodology were correlated with self-reported daily surveys ( r  = .82, p  

Keywords: data collection; ecological momentary assessment; EMA; alcohol use measurement; validation study; breathalyzers; daily surveys; college students (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:14:y:2024:i:2:p:21582440241256531

DOI: 10.1177/21582440241256531

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