1. Background and Objectives
NEXT-DAY SURVEYS PRODUCE MORE ALCOHOL AND SEX EVENTS AND HIGHER VOLUME DRINKING THAN EVENT-BASED SURVEYS USING ECOLOGICAL MOMENTARY ASSESSMENT Nancy P. Barnett, Tiffany R. Glynn & Timothy Souza Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies and Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences School of Public Health, Brown University
Methods
Background and Objectives
Participants
N = 26
46.2% female
M age = 29.7
76.9% non-Hispanic White
Regular heavy drinkers with recent condomless sex or sex under the influence of alcohol
Procedures
Participants were provided an Android smartphone or used their own smartphone (46.2%)
For 14 days participants used a custom EMA app (MEI Research, Ltd) to measure alcohol use and sexual behavior
Standard EMA methods were used, including:
(a) event-based surveys about alcohol use (each drink) and sex episodes after they occurred, and
(b) scheduled surveys at the start of each day to record behavior on the previous day
Generalized Estimating Equations was used to compare different survey types by day
Predictors Tested
Gender
Whether participant used own phone
Day number (1-14)
Current alcohol diagnosis
Baseline past-month heavy drinking
Concurrent other substance use (on same day as report)
Baseline depression (CES-D)
Baseline impulsivity (UPPS-P)
Sex/partner characteristics
Background
Event and morning-after reports are both commonly used in studies using ecological momentary assessment, but rarely compared.
These report types show differential prediction of subsequent drinking (Epler et al., 2014).
Person variables and context variables predict compliance with EMA procedures (Sokolovsky et al., 2014) so may also predict disagreement of different survey types.
Objectives
Compare event-level and next morning reports of alcohol use and sexual behavior using a smartphone-based application.
Identify predictors of disagreement between the two reports.
Results
On average 13 out of 14 morning surveys (93%) were completed.
Event Surveys
Next-Day Surveys
Agreement
Significant Predictors of Discrepancies
Any Drinking
104/364
28.6%
130/326
39.9%
78.6% %a
Later day (p = .04); later days had greater disagreement
Greater depression (p < .001)
Greater impulsivity: less premeditation (p < .001), less perseverance (p = .001)
Average Number of Drinksb
3.5 (4.6)
6.1 (6.6)
r = .22*
Male (p = .03). On average event reports were 3.2 drinks lower for men and .9 lower for women
Higher baseline heavy drinking (p < .001)
Used drugs that day (p = .025)
Greater impulsivity: less premeditation (p = .05)
Any Sex
86/364
23.6%
113/327
34.6%
74.2% %a
Greater impulsivity: less premeditation (p = .017), less perseverance (p = .07)
aLower value if all days are counted regardless of survey completion. Higher value if not-completed surveys are considered missing.
b131 days where drinking was reported on one or both surveys.
*p < .05.
Conclusions
Agreement between in vivo drink and sex reports and next-day surveys are both 75%-80%.
When drinks were consumed, number of drinks on morning reports had higher values than event reports, a discrepancy that was greater for men.
Person-level predictors of greater inaccuracy can be identified; context level predictors require greater exploration.
Event-based surveys are ideal for research related to experience but may underestimate drinking days, number of drinks per day, and incidence of sexual behavior relative to next-day reports.
There are implications for studies that measure affect and impulsivity using EMA – since the reliability of behavioral reports is poorer when affect is poor and impulsivity is high.
This research was funded by a developmental grant from the Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research (P30AI042853) and Brown University’s Alcohol Research Center on HIV (ARCH), which is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (P01AA019072). MEI Research, Ltd. programmed the data collection app for this study. Correspondence concerning this poster should be addressed to