TY  - JOUR
AU  - Eguchi, Kana
AU  - Kubota, Takeaki
AU  - Koyanagi, Tomoyoshi
AU  - Muto, Manabu
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/3/25
TI  - Real-World Data on Alcohol Consumption Behavior Among Smartphone Health Care App Users in Japan: Retrospective Study
JO  - Online J Public Health Inform
SP  - e57084
VL  - 17
KW  - alcohol consumption
KW  - individual behavior
KW  - mobile health
KW  - mobile health app
KW  - mobile health care app log-based survey
KW  - real-world data
KW  - RWD
KW  - RWD analysis
KW  - smartphone health care app
KW  - surveillance system
KW  - health care app
AB  - Background: Although many studies have used smartphone apps to examine alcohol consumption, none have clearly delineated long-term (>1 year) consumption among the general population. Objective: The objective of our study is to elucidate in detail the alcohol consumption behavior of alcohol drinkers in Japan using individual real-world data. During the state of emergency associated with the COVID-19 outbreak, the government requested that people restrict social gatherings and stay at home, so we hypothesize that alcohol consumption among Japanese working people decreased during this period due to the decrease in occasions for alcohol consumption. This analysis was only possible with individual real-world data. We also aimed to clarify the effects of digital interventions based on notifications about daily alcohol consumption. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study targeting 5-year log data from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2022, obtained from a commercial smartphone health care app (CALO mama Plus). First, to investigate the possible size of the real-world data, we investigated the rate of active users of this commercial smartphone app. Second, to validate the individual real-world data recorded in the app, we compared individual real-world data from 9991 randomly selected users with government-provided open data on the number of daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan and with nationwide alcohol consumption data. To clarify the effects of digital interventions, we investigated the relationship between 2 types of notification records (ie, “good” and “bad”) and a 3-day daily alcohol consumption log following the notification. The protocol of this retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Kyoto University Graduate School and Faculty of Medicine (R4699). 
SN  - 1947-2579
UR  - https://ojphi.jmir.org/2025/1/e57084
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/57084
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40131328
DO  - 10.2196/57084
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/57084
ER  -