Evaluation of 6 years of eHealth data in the alcohol use disorder field indicates improved efficacy of care.

Wallden M, Dahlberg G, Månflod J, Knez R, Winkvist M, Zetterström A, Andersson K, Hämäläinen MD, Nyberg F

Front Digit Health 5 (-) 1282022 [2024-01-05; online 2024-01-05]

Predictive eHealth tools will change the field of medicine, however long-term data is scarce. Here, we report findings on data collected over 6 years with an AI-based eHealth system for supporting the treatment of alcohol use disorder. Since the deployment of Previct Alcohol, structured data has been archived in a data warehouse, currently comprising 505,641 patient days. The frequencies of relapse and caregiver-patient messaging over time was studied. The effects of both introducing an AI-driven relapse prediction tool and the COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed. The relapse frequency per patient day among Previct Alcohol users was 0.28 in 2016, 0.22 in 2020 and 0.25 in 2022 with no drastic change during COVID-19. When a relapse was predicted, the actual occurrence of relapse in the days immediately after was found to be above average. Additionally, there was a noticeable increase in caregiver interactions following these predictions. When caregivers were not informed of these predictions, the risk of relapse was found to be higher compared to when the prediction tool was actively being used. The prediction tool decreased the relapse risk by 9% for relapses that were of short duration and by 18% for relapses that lasted more than 3 days. The eHealth system Previct Alcohol allows for high resolution measurements, enabling precise identifications of relapse patterns and follow up on individual and population-based alcohol use disorder treatment. eHealth relapse prediction aids the caregiver to act timely, which reduces, delays, and shortens relapses.

Category: Health

Category: Social Science & Humanities

Type: Journal article

PubMed 38250054

DOI 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1282022

Crossref 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1282022

pmc: PMC10796677


Publications 9.5.1