Excessive drinking exerts a substantial population health burden, and alcohol use is the fourth-leading behavioral cause of death in the United States (US). A temporary abstinence challenge (TAC), such as Dry January, is a period when people voluntarily stop drinking. TACs have emerged as a popular lay response to concerns about excessive drinking; however, they have received scant research attention in the US with many gaps in knowledge. We hope to take advantage of the Surveying the Social World opportunity to obtain current national estimates of awareness, participation, and attitudes toward TACs. We propose a brief survey (seven to nine questions depending on branching) that will be administered to a nationally representative panel of adults (n=1,000) to be conducted by Verasight in agreement with the Center for Social Science Innovation. Results of this small-scale survey will inform the recruitment plans in a subsequent, larger study of TACs (i.e., the number needed to screen to reach our target sample size), for which a National Institutes of health grant proposal is currently in preparation. In addition, descriptive findings, especially exploratory analyses of variation by demographic sub-groups, may extend current knowledge of TACs.

This project is part of Surveying the Social World research incubation initiative.