Information about Drinking for Ex-serving personnel (InDEx)

The InDEx project is a collaboration between King's Centre for Military Health Research and University of Liverpool, with phase one funded by the Medical Research Council.

It is well known that alcohol problems are more common in the UK military than in the rest of the population. Levels of alcohol consumption and binge drinking (drinking lots of alcohol in a short space of time) are almost twice as high. But levels of drinking do not seem to decrease when someone leaves the UK Armed Forces. Previously, several studies suggest that personnel in the UK Armed Forces drink more than the general population.

Research has shown that electronic interventions, which aim to help someone lower the amount they drink, can be helpful. These treatments which have been developed for the general population may also be suitable for people from the military, but changes will need to be made to make it suitable to a military population.

Phase 1 developed an electronic intervention, which is delivered through a mobile phone app, to help people transitioning and service leavers of the UK Armed Forces to lower their alcohol consumption and to drink less using rule-based personalisation.