New research will use wrist-worn sensors to understand heavy drinking

Heavy drinking among young adults in the U.S. leads to thousands of assaults, injuries and deaths every year. Studying drinking behavior can be difficult, however, because people naturally become less capable of reporting their behavior accurately when they are intoxicated.  

A new, five-year, $1.7 million grant award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism will allow Penn State researchers to study heavy drinking using transdermal alcohol sensors — small devices worn on the wrist that measure alcohol as it leaves the body in sweat.

Previous research by principal investigator Michael Russell, associate professor of biobehavioral health, and others has demonstrated that this method of measuring alcohol, known as transdermal alcohol concentration or TAC, is comparable to blood alcohol concentration that is used in courts of law but has the unique advantage of being measured in a passive, non-intrusive manner.  

This project will allow the researchers to accurately and continuously measure how much alcohol people consumed, how quickly they became intoxicated, how long they remained intoxicated, and — with the addition of smart phone surveys the following day — what consequences they experienced because of their drinking.  

“This study focuses not just on how much someone might drink, but also on how they might drink,” Russell explained. “The wrist-wearable sensors allow us to see how fast intoxication levels rise, how intense the peak intoxication is, and how long the active drinking phase of an episode lasts by collecting transdermal alcohol concentration levels through the skin every 20 seconds.  

“These data — which highlight how different one drinking event can be from another even when people consume the same number of drinks — may help us predict who is at risk for developing alcohol problems and whether alcohol-related consequences like hangovers, blackouts, illnesses, or injuries might occur,” he continued. 

Russell and his collaborators; Robert Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health, and Kimberly Mallett, research professor of health and human development in the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center; are recruiting 500 young adults aged 19 to 22 who frequently engage in heavy drinking. Across two years, participants will measure and report on their drinking behavior during eight separate two-week periods.  

The study will help the researchers answer questions about what amounts and speeds of drinking are associated with negative consequences and what time of drinking is associated with alcohol use disorders.  

“Harm reduction strategies that focus on reducing the physical, psychological, and social consequences of alcohol misuse among young adults are promising,” Russell said. “We see potential for the device data to play a role in clarifying the development of alcohol-use-disorder risk and for reducing this risk through targeted behavioral intervention." 

Originally published in January 2025.