Problem drinking app funded

A project to develop a smartphone app to help problem drinkers has been awarded more than $187,000 in public money.

The Health Research Council awarded the cash to Auckland University Honorary Associate Professor Natalie Walker as part of an announcement of $2 million in funding for research projects across the country.

Walker is developing and testing a new version of the United States-designed smartphone app, Step Away, to self-manage hazardous drinking in Kiwis.

The funding will allow researchers to work with problem drinkers in Auckland over a sixmonth period to carry out the first ‘‘definitive’’ clinical trial of the app, Walker said.

Step Away is the only publicly available and evidence-based alcohol-related mobile app grounded in psychological theory, she said.

Council chief executive Professor Kath McPherson said there was a huge cost to society from alcohol abuse.

‘‘The cost of alcohol-related harm in New Zealand is about $5.3 billion a year, or $14.5m a day, let alone the human costs to the people affected and their families.’’

Almost $250,000 was awarded to Dr William Levack of Otago University in Wellington for research into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Research released this week labelled COPD as one of the respiratory diseases that costs New Zealand’s economy an estimated $60 billion each year. Levack said there were more than 12,000 hospital admissions for acute exacerbation of COPD each year.

He wants to conduct a clinical trial on behavioural interventions after discharge from hospital, and improve the uptake of pulmonary rehabilitation.