An app aimed at anyone wanting to keep track of their drinking habits and alcohol consumption.
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DrinkControl
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By E-protect
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Features
- Alcohol use tracking
- Graphs and reports for sharing
- Cost and calorie calculator
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Clinical review
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User reviews
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 (0 reviews) Rate this app
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Get the app from
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iTunes
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Cost
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Free
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What does the app do?
This app helps you keep track of the amount of alcohol you drink and how often. It uses a drinks diary in which you can log your drinks and use the chart function to observe your drinking habits in the last 24 hours, last 7 days, the last 30 days and when you've reached the binge drinking level. The app also helps you to calculate the financial cost of your alcohol consumption. For a more detailed description of the app, see iTunes and for a detailed review, see Reviews.
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PROS ✔
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CONS ✘
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✔ Simple to use
✔ Tracks the monetary and calorie cost of drinking - easy to understand infographics
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✘ No option to pick NZ-specific alcohol drinking standards
✘ No personalised settings or customisations
✘ Weekly and monthly drinking data
susceptible to being misinterpreted
✘ No information about developers’
expertise
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Privacy and security
All personal information entered via the app is stored on the user's device and not shared with a third party unless authorised by the user. View the app privacy policy. Read more about things you can do to improve your safety and security when using apps.
Review details
Date of review: July 2016
Platform reviewed: Android
App version: 1.2.0
Download size: 1.4 MB
Learn more
DrinkControl website
Interactive tools Alcohol.org.nz
Garnett C, Crane D, West R,et al. Identification of Behavior Change Techniques and Engagement Strategies to Design a Smartphone App to Reduce Alcohol Consumption Using a Formal Consensus Method. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2015 Jun 29;3(2).
Clinical review
Reviewer: Garren Espin, Dietitian, Auckland Diabetes Centre
Date of review: July 2016
Comments: This app is most useful for consumers of alcohol, especially frequent consumers. It enables consumers to see the monetary and calorie cost of their drinking habits. The app allows users to reflect on what their current drinking habits are doing to their health, such as hindering weight loss, and their financial security. Tracking the monetary and calorie cost of an individuals drinking habits may facilitate behaviour change more than simply tracking alcohol intake alone.
Safety concerns: "The weekly grading system could mislead one day binge drinkers into thinking their drinking behaviour was acceptable - week graded as violet/non -excessive even though they consumed their weekly maximum in one night."
New Zealand relevance: There is no option to pick NZ specific alcohol drinking standards."
MARS review
The formal app review is based on the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) developed by researchers at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.(1) It is designed to score apps on a few comprehensive dimensions — engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information quality. Each dimension comprises several items which are rated on a 5-point scale from “1. Inadequate” to “5. Excellent”.
Read more about the MARS scale.
The mean score is the mean of two independent reviewers' ratings:
| Dimension |
Score |
| Engagement (5 items) |
2.4 |
| Functionality (4 items) |
3.2 |
| Aesthetics (3 items) |
2.6 |
| Information (7 items) |
3.0 |
| App quality mean Score |
2.8 |
References
- Stoyanov SR, Hides L, Kavanagh DJ, et al. Mobile app rating scale: a new tool for assessing the quality of health mobile apps. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2015 Mar 11;3(1):e27. doi: 10.2196/mhealth.3422.
