Researcher and emergency physician Brian Suffoletto studied 22 adults between the ages of 21 and 43, and gave volunteers a vodka drink with enough alcohol to produce a 0.2% breath concentration. In the United States, the legal limit for alcoholic beverages, based on the concentration of blood alcohol per gram of alcohol in 100 ml of blood, is 0.08%.
Participants had one hour to complete the alcohol, and then analyzed their breath alcohol concentration over seven hours while performing a running task, running in a straight line for 10 steps, before turning around and running 10 steps backwards.
Researchers secured a smartphone to the participants’ lower backs with an elastic strap. Using an app to record accelerometer data, the phones then measure acceleration, side-to-side, up-down and forward and backward motions while participants were running.
Some 90% of the time, researchers were able to use changes in the course that were detected by the phone sensors and the app to identify when a person’s blood alcohol limit exceeded 0.08%.
“This controlled lab study shows that our phones can be helpful in identifying ‘signatures’ of functional impairment related to alcohol,” said Suffoletto, who was with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine when the study was conducted and is now with Stanford University School of The Department of Medicine, said in a statement.
“We have powerful sensors that we carry with us everywhere we go,” Suffoletto said. “We need to learn how to use them to best serve public health.
“I lost a close friend to a drinking and driving accident in college,” Suffoletto added. “And as an emergency physician, I have provided scores of adults with acute alcohol intoxication injuries. Because of this, I have devoted the past 10 years to testing digital interventions to prevent deaths and injuries related to excessive alcohol consumption.”
Alcohol, a central nervous system depressant, impairs brain function and limits thinking, muscle coordination and reasoning, which can affect a person’s ability to drive safely. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drunk driving accidents in the United States claim more than 10,000 lives per year.
Researchers say the study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, is a “proof-of-concept study” that “provides a basis for future research on the use of smartphones to remotely limit alcohol-related alcoholism.” to detect. ”
The team plans further research with participants carrying phones in their hands and pockets.
.
