Severin Haug

University of Zurich | UZH · Swiss Research Institute for Public Health and Addiction

BACKGROUND Digital interventions have been successfully used to address addictive behaviors, such as substance use, in adolescents and young adults. However, maintaining engagement remains a challenge for digital substance use interventions. There is limited evidence on the determinants of engagement with multiple behavioral interventions among voc...

This article examines the implementation, participation rates, and potential determinants of participation in the digital addiction prevention program “ready4life.” A two-arm cluster-randomized trial recruited German vocational students via class-based strategies. Intervention group received 16 weeks of in-app coaching; the control group received h...

BACKGROUND Vocational school students exhibit a high prevalence of addictive behaviors. Digital prevention programs targeting multiple addictive behaviors and promoting life skills are promising. Tailoring intervention content to participants’ preferences, such as allowing them to choose behavior modules, may increase engagement and efficacy. Howev...

Background: Despite an abundance of digital health interventions (DHIs) targeting the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), it is unclear what specific components make a DHI effective. Purpose: This narrative umbrella review aimed to identify the most effective behavior change techniques (BCTs) in DHIs that address the pr...

Background and aims: Problem gambling constitutes a public health concern associated with psychopathological comorbidity, substance use, and financial difficulties. Most individuals with gambling problems avoid counseling services due to perceived stigma and their preference for self-reliance. Treatment accessibility could be improved through web-...

Background: Digital interventions are an emerging and promising avenue for addiction prevention and mental health promotion, but their reach and use are often limited, and little is known about the factors associated with youth accessibility. SmartCoach is a life skills training program for addiction prevention where adolescents are proactively in...

Background: Vocational students have an increased risk to engage in health-risk behaviors compared to same-aged peers. To date, evidence-based digital prevention approaches that address multiple health-risk behaviors are rare. Method: The randomized-controlled trial (RCT) “Prevention of at-risk substance and Internet use disorders among vocational...

Background: At-risk alcohol use, particularly binge drinking, is widespread among adolescents and young adults in most Western countries. MobileCoach Alcohol is a mobile app-based program for alcohol prevention that provides individualized coaching using a conversational agent. The current study tested the acceptance, use, and evaluation of this n...

Background: Despite an abundance of digital health interventions (DHIs) targeting the prevention and management of common non-communicable diseases (NCDs), it is unclear what specific components make an intervention effective in changing human behavior.Purpose: The aim of this umbrella review was to identify the most effective behavior change techn...

Background: Addictive behaviors such as tobacco/e-cigarette smoking, at-risk alcohol consumption, cannabis use or compulsive internet use are common among apprentices. ready4life is a mobile app-based preventive intervention program for apprentices that promotes life skills and reduces risky behavior. The present study tested the efficacy of ready...

Background and aims: Behavioral addictions are a public health problem that causes harm to both individuals and society. Internet-based interventions offer potential benefits over face-to-face therapy for the treatment of behavioral addictions, including their accessibility, perceived anonymity, and low costs. We systematically reviewed the charact...

Introduction: The main objective of this study was to test the longer-term and differential efficacy of a mobile phone‒based life-skills training program designed to prevent substance use among adolescents. Study Design: A 2-arm, parallel-group, cluster RCT with assessments at baseline and follow-up after 6 and 18 months was conducted. The efficac...

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) apps show vast potential in supporting patients and health care systems with the increasing prevalence and economic costs of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide. However, despite the availability of evidence-based mHealth apps, a substantial proportion of users do not adhere to them as intended and may cons...

This publication appendix lists identified intervention-related and patient-related factors with a positive or negative influence on adherence to mHealth apps for each health domain in detail. Related Publication: https://www.jmir.org/2022/5/e35371

Background: Prevalence rates for lifetime cannabis use and cannabis use disorder are much higher in people with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder than in those without. CANreduce 2.0 is an intervention that is generally effective at reducing cannabis use in cannabis misusers. This self-guided web-based intervention (6-week duration) consists...

Background Though Internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) and mindfulness-based interventions (generally delivered in-situ) appear effective for people with substance use disorders, IMIs incorporating mindfulness are largely missing, including those targeting frequent cannabis use. Methods This paper details the protocol for a three-arm ra...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Bislang ist zum Sucht- und Gesundheitsverhalten von Jugendlichen, die berufliche Schulen besuchen, nur wenig bekannt. Ziel der Arbeit Auf Grundlage der Daten einer Stichprobe Berufslernender in der Schweiz wird untersucht, (1) in welchen demographischen Subgruppen Suchtverhaltensweisen, Belastungs- und Schutzfaktoren b...

Background: Occupational stress is one of the main sources of stress in apprentices with physical and psychological health consequences. Just-in-time planning interventions (JITPIs) are one opportunity to deliver intervention components at the right times and locations to optimally support apprentices in stressful situations. The aim of this study...

Background: Mobile phone–delivered life skills programs are an emerging and promising way to promote mental health and prevent substance use among adolescents, but little is known about how adolescents actually use them. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine engagement with a mobile phone–based life skills program and its different comp...

BACKGROUND Mobile health applications show vast potential in supporting patients and health care systems with the globally increasing prevalence and economic costs of non-communicable diseases. However, despite the availability of evidence-based mHealth apps, a substantial proportion of users does not adhere to them as intended and may consequently...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.625640.].

Background: The current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is an emergency on a global scale, with huge swathes of the population required to remain indoors for prolonged periods to tackle the virus. In this new context, individuals' health-promoting routines are under greater strain, contributing to poorer mental and physical health. Additionally, indi...

Hintergrund: mHealth Applikationen eröffnen vielfältige Möglichkeiten zur individualisierten Prävention, zur Förderung protektiver Verhaltensweisen und des Selbstmanagements von nichtübertragbaren Krankheiten. Gleichzeitig ist deren Entwicklung und Instandhaltung im Vergleich zu browserbasierten eHealth-Anwendungen deutlich aufwändiger und Nutzende...

Background Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Life-skills training programs conducted within the school curriculum are effective in preventing the onset and escalation of substance use among adolescents. However, their disseminati...

Background: Depression and harmful alcohol use are two of the top five leading causes of years of life lost to disability in high-income countries. Integrated treatment targeting both at the same time is often considered more complicated and difficult and, therefore, more expensive. Consequently, integrated internet-based interventions could be a v...

Background and aims: Estonia has one of the highest alcohol-attributable mortality rates within the European Union. The aim of this study was to estimate the efficacy of an on-line self-help intervention to reduce problem drinking at the population level. Design: On-line open randomized controlled trial with an 8-week intervention and an active...

BACKGROUND Prevalence rates for lifetime cannabis use and cannabis use disorder are much higher in people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those without. CANreduce 2.0 has been shown to be generally effective at reducing cannabis use in cannabis misusers. This self-guided web-based intervention (duration=6 weeks) consists o...

Background Prevalence rates for lifetime cannabis use and cannabis use disorder are much higher in people with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder than in those without. CANreduce 2.0 is an intervention that is generally effective at reducing cannabis use in cannabis misusers. This self-guided web-based intervention (6-week duration) consists...

Background: Despite increasing demand for treatment among cannabis users in many countries, most users are not in treatment. Internet-based self-help offers an alternative for those hesitant to seek face-to-face therapy, though low effectiveness and adherence issues often arise. Objective: Through adherence-focused guidance enhancement, we aimed to...

BACKGROUND Mobile phone–delivered life skills programs are an emerging and promising way to promote mental health and prevent substance use among adolescents, but little is known about how adolescents actually use them. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to determine engagement with a mobile phone–based life skills program and its different compon...

BACKGROUND Despite increasing demand for treatment among cannabis misusers in many countries, most misusers are not in treatment. Internet-based self-help offers an alternative for those hesitant to seek face-to-face therapy, though low-effectiveness and adherence issues often arise. Through adherence-focused guidance enhancement (AFGE), we aimed t...

Background Despite increasing demand for treatment among cannabis users in many countries, most users are not in treatment. Internet-based self-help offers an alternative for those hesitant to seek face-to-face therapy, though low effectiveness and adherence issues often arise. Objective Through adherence-focused guidance enhancement, we aimed to i...

BACKGROUND Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Life-skills training programs conducted within the school curriculum are effective in preventing the onset and escalation of substance use among adolescents. However, their disseminati...

Mobiltelefone eröffnen neue Möglichkeiten, um bei Jugendlichen über einen längeren Zeitraum hinweg individualisiert Lebenskompetenzen zu fördern und sie in einem risikoarmen Umgang mit Suchtmitteln zu unterstützen. ready4life ist ein Programm zur Suchtprävention bei Lernenden in der Berufsausbildung, das sowohl substanzspezifische als auch substanz...

Background A large proportion of apprentices shows addictive behaviours like cigarette smoking, alcohol, cannabis, or compulsive Internet use, others do not show such behaviours at all. ready4life is a smartphone application-based coaching program for apprentices, which takes into account the heterogeneity of adolescent addictive behaviour by promo...

Background and aims: Buying-shopping disorder and its transferability to the online sector is controversial. This study investigates in-store and online shopping patterns by comparing data-based modeling to a diagnostic cut-off approach. Further aims were to test model equivalence for gender and identify socio-demographic risk factors. Methods:...

Background Life-skills trainings conducted within the school curriculum are effective in preventing the onset and escalation of substance use among adolescents. However, their dissemination is impeded due to their large resource requirements. Life-skills training provided via mobile phones might represent a more economic and scalable approach. Met...

Background Migrant populations usually report higher smoking rates. Among those migrant populations, Turkish- and Kurdish-speaking migrants are often overrepresented. Providing equal access to health services is one of major challenges of our time. The need for adapted smoking-cessation treatments for Turkish-speaking populations to achieve equity...

Interventions to reduce alcohol use typically include several elements, such as information on the risks of alcohol consumption, planning for sensible drinking, and training of protective behavioral strategies. However, the effectiveness of these individual intervention elements within comprehensive programs has not been addressed so far, but it co...

Background: Despite an initial steep decrease in alcohol misuse among Estonians through structural intervention means and the scaling up of alcohol counselling in the mid-2000's, most of the country's alcohol misuse indicators remain clearly higher than European averages. Consequently, an online self-help program was launched as part of an initial...

Introduction: The past-year prevalence of problem gambling worldwide averages 2.3%. Switzerland exhibits a slightly lower past-year prevalence rate, of 1.1%, among adults. Only a minority of these adults attend outpatient treatment. Surveyed problem gamblers have explained that they wanted to handle the problem on their own. The option of a web-bas...

BACKGROUND Interventions to reduce alcohol use typically include several elements such as information on the risks of alcohol consumption, motivation for sensible drinking, or protective behavioral strategies. However, the effectiveness of these single intervention elements within comprehensive programs has not been addressed so far, but could give...

Background: Interventions to reduce alcohol use typically include several elements, such as information on the risks of alcohol consumption, planning for sensible drinking, and training of protective behavioral strategies. However, the effectiveness of these individual intervention elements within comprehensive programs has not been addressed so f...

Ziel der Studie: Primäres Ziel der Auswertungen war, das Glücksspielverhalten und Probleme im Zusammenhang mit Glücksspiel in der Schweizer Bevölkerung auf Grundlage einer repräsentativen Befragung aus dem Jahr 2017 zu untersuchen. Die Schätzung der Lebenszeit- und 12-Monatsprävalenz des Glücksspiels sowie des risikoreichen und pathologischen Spiel...

Background and aims: This study aimed to examine associations between risk factors suggested in the pathway model proposed by Billieux et al., demographic and substance use variables, and problematic smartphone use (PSU). Methods: The analytical sample consisted of 5,096 Swiss men (mean age = 25.5 years, SD = 1.26). Multiple linear regression analy...

Background: In recent years, cocaine use has increased in many countries, but only a minority of users seek treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is seen as first-choice face-to-face treatment. However, a web-based intervention might serve as an alternative. Aims: To test the efficacy of a web-based self-help intervention, with and without...

Chatbots sind digitale Anwendungen, die via Chat einen Austausch mit einem technischen System ermöglichen. Aufgrund deren Attraktivität und Einfachheit der Bedienung sowie der Möglichkeit zur Kommunikation mit einer realen Beratungsperson über das gleiche Medium, eröffnen diese neue Möglichkeiten zur Optimierung der Versorgung von Personen mit Alko...

Im Zusammenhang mit dem demografischen Wandel und einem stetig steigenden Anteil älterer Menschen stellen sich zunehmend Fragen zur Sucht im Alter. Das betrifft nicht nur stoffgebundene Suchterkrankungen, sondern auch Verhaltenssüchte. In diesem Beitrag werden ausgewählte Befunde aus der internationalen Literatur sowie aktuelle Prävalenzzahlen aus...

Background: Life-skills trainings conducted within the school curriculum are effective in preventing the onset and escalation of substance use among adolescents. However, their dissemination is impeded due to their large resource requirements. Life-skills training provided via mobile phones might represent a more economic and scalable approach. Th...

Zielsetzung: Vorstellen des Konzepts für ein mobiltelefonbasiertes Programm zur Förderung von Lebenskompetenzen bei Jugendlichen und Untersuchung individueller und klassenspezifischer Merkmale, welche die Teilnahmebereitschaft und den Abbruch der Programmteilnahme beeinflussen. Methodik: Datengrundlage für die Mehrebenenanalysen bildeten 2008 Lerne...

Aims. To examine the quality of life (QOL) of parents of children with a specific mental disorder (any age). Methods. Relevant articles were searched using different databases. Articles were included that compared the QOL of parents with mentally-ill children to parents of healthy controls or norm values or provided the required data for this compa...

BACKGROUND In recent years, cocaine use has increased in many countries and only a minority utilize treatment. To date, no pharmacological therapy has been proven effective and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is seen as first-choice treatment. However, a web-based intervention might be an alternative treatment option. OBJECTIVE To test the effi...

Background: Drinking goal preferences could change over time in alcohol treatment and during follow up. Objectives: To examine the stability of drinking goals over time, types of drinking goal trajectory, and the associations between drinking goal trajectories and baseline client characteristics and treatment outcomes. Methods: We performed se...

Background: In European countries, including Switzerland, cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug. Offering a Web-based self-help tool could potentially reach users who otherwise would not seek traditional help. However, such Web-based self-help tools often suffer from low adherence. Objective: Through adherence-focused guidance enhancem...

Die rasche Ausbreitung neuer Kommunikationstechnologien er?ff net neue M?glichkeiten für deren Nutzung in der psychosozialen Versorgung und für die Prozessforschung innerhalb von therapeutischen Gruppen.

ready4life ist ein mobiltelefonbasiertes Programm zur Prävention des Substanzkonsums, u. a. durch die Förderung von Lebenskompetenzen. Konstruktiver Umgang mit Stress und Emotionen, Widerstandsfähigkeit gegenüber Substanzkonsum sowie Sozialkompetenzen werden in interaktiver Form gefördert; Rauchende erhalten überdies individualisierte SMS-Nachricht...

Seit Aufschaltung des Selbsthilfeangebots MyDrinkControl zum Thema Alkohol im Mai 2012 wurde dieses 27‘177-mal genutzt. Das Online-Angebot gibt ein Feedback zum Alkoholkonsum mit dem Ziel, risikoarmen Konsum zu fördern. Bei drei von vier Nutzenden lag ein problematischer Alkoholkonsum vor. Die Promotion des Angebotes auf der Suchmaschine Google kon...

BACKGROUND In European countries, including Switzerland, cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug. Offering a Web-based self-help tool could potentially reach users who otherwise would not seek traditional help. However, such Web-based self-help tools often suffer from low adherence. OBJECTIVE Through adherence-focused guidance enhancements...

Background: Although mobile phone–delivered smoking cessation programs are a promising way to promote smoking cessation among adolescents, little is known about how adolescents might actually use them. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine adolescents’ trajectories of engagement with a mobile phone–delivered smoking cessation program ov...

Introduction: MobileCoach (www.mobile-coach.eu) is an open source behavioural intervention platform for scalable digital health interventions (DHIs). Based on personalized data streams, MobileCoach uses communication services (e.g. text-messaging) and sensor data (e.g. on physical activity) to monitor behaviour via ambulatory assessment techniques...

Background: Substance use and misuse often first emerge during adolescence. Generic life skills training that is typically conducted within the school curriculum is effective at preventing the onset and escalation of substance use among adolescents. However, the dissemination of such programs is impeded by their large resource requirements in terms...

Objective: To test the efficacy of a technology-based integrated smoking cessation and alcohol intervention versus a smoking cessation only intervention in adolescents. Methods: This was a two-arm, parallel-group, cluster-randomised controlled trial with assessments at baseline and six months follow-up. Subjects in both groups received tailored mo...

Health professionals have limited resources and are not able to personally monitor and support patients in their everyday life. Against this background and due to the increasing number of self-service channels and digital health interventions, we investigate how text-based healthcare chatbots (THCB) can be designed to effectively support patients a...

Introduction: Moderators of outcome are investigated in a technology-based intervention that has been shown to effectively reduce binge drinking among adolescents. Methods: Secondary data analyses were performed on socio-demographic, health-related, and socio-cognitive moderators of intervention efficacy. Students attending 80 vocational and upper...

Background: Few studies have compared characteristics of clients entering alcohol treatment who differ in their drinking goal preferences or have investigated the relevance of drinking goals as a predictor of treatment outcomes. Objectives: To investigate associations between baseline drinking goal preferences and client characteristics as well...

Objective: To test the efficacy of a combined web- and text messaging-based intervention to reduce problem drinking in young people compared to assessment only. Method: Two-arm, parallel-group, cluster-randomized controlled trial with assessments at baseline and 6-month follow up. The automated intervention included online feedback, based on the...

Background: Few studies have reported on the outcomes of outpatient alcohol treatment or the factors associated with effective treatment. We investigated treatment outcome, treatment retention, and their predictors in clients receiving outpatient treatment for alcohol misuse. Methods: Naturalistic, longitudinal multi-centre study in Switzerland...

Background: This study examined the long-term efficacy of individualized counseling letters that targeted either smoking abstinence or reducing the number of cigarettes smoked per day to promote future cessation. Methods: A nationwide random-digit-dialing telephone sample was used to identify smokers from the general adult population (participation...

Introduction: In the general population, alcohol use disorder and depression more often occur together than any other combination of a mental illness with a substance use disorder. It is important to have a cost-effective intervention that is able to reach at-risk individuals in the early stages of developing alcohol use disorders and depression d...

Cognitive performance;mood;pharmacological neuroenhancement