This presentation reports the cost-effectiveness analysis from a fully powered randomized clinical trial that featured a head-to-head comparison between telemedicine and digital health interventions for providing continuing care for patients with alcohol use disorder. A telemedicine intervention (telephone monitoring and counseling: TMC) and a mobile health intervention (Alcohol Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System: A-CHESS) were examined in a 2×2 factorial randomized trial that enrolled 262 participants from two Philadelphia area intensive outpatient programs. Intervention costs and effectiveness (in terms of number of risky drinking days) were assessed for each group with respect to the control group.

The effectiveness of reduced days heavy drinking for all 3 treatment groups (TMC, A-CHESS, and TMC+A-CHESS) were statistically significant compared to the control group. However, no treatment group was more effective than the others in terms of statistical significance. Compared to the control group, where participants averaged 43.75 days of heavy drinking over 12 months, participants in the treatment groups had significantly fewer average heavy drinking days over the 12-month intervention (TMC: 15.78 days heavy drinking, P)