# A Mobile App to Address Co-Occurring Sleep Problems and Heavy Alcohol Use among Veterans Outside of Care Settings

> **NIH NIH R34** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2023 · $259,762

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The long-term goal of this proposal is to improve treatment outcomes for post 9/11 veterans with alcohol use
disorder (AUD) and insomnia who are not currently accessing care through the Veterans Affairs Healthcare
System (VA) or other settings. Many post-9/11 veterans struggle with AUD and this can be especially
pronounced with the co-occurrence of insomnia. With upwards of 50% of veterans who have behavioral health
needs not seeking treatment, it is imperative to utilize advances in technology to develop and test interventions
that can reach non-treatment seeking veterans and target both symptoms of insomnia and AUD. CBT-I is the
first line of treatment for insomnia, and it has been found to improve insomnia symptoms among veterans and
other populations across a number of studies. However, very little research has examined the efficacy of CBT-I
in addressing AUD symptoms; indeed, AUD is often a criterion excluding individuals from CBT-I trials. CBT-I is
often delivered individually, in groups, or face-to-face over telehealth, yet these formats do little to reach
veterans with insomnia and AUD that do not seek behavioral health care. Therefore, we propose to beta test
and conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial of a promising mobile app for addressing insomnia among
veterans (Insomnia Coach), enhanced with evidence-based brief alcohol intervention content, among post 9/11
veterans with insomnia and AUD that are outside of treatment settings. The engaging and easy-to-use mobile
app integrates aspects of CBT-I with brief alcohol intervention content (e.g., drinking normative feedback,
relapse prevention strategies) to improve upon both AUD and insomnia symptoms, which often go
unaddressed in treatments focused on a single disorder, but are necessary to target in integrated treatments
due to the interplay of AUD and insomnia symptoms. This project contains four aims: (1) refine and add brief
alcohol intervention content to the popular VA-developed Insomnia Coach mobile app and test usability,
feasibility, and acceptability of the app in a beta testing phase, (2) test the efficacy of the enhanced Insomnia
Coach on alcohol use and insomnia outcomes compared to control, (3) assess mechanisms of change to learn
how and for whom the intervention works best, and (4) explore the intervention's potential to increase
treatment initiation (willingness to seek care, preparatory behaviors) among veterans with AUD who are often
difficult to engage in care due to logistical and stigma-related barriers. The unique strengths of this proposal
are its focus on an underserved population (including targeted recruitment of women and racial/ethnic minority
veterans), utilization of mobile technology for intervention delivery to overcome barriers to care, and use of a
novel integrated intervention to target both AUD and insomnia. This study intends to produce a viable,
evidence-based, and easy-to-access treatment that can have substantial impa...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10647530
- **Project number:** 1R34AA030868-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Eric Roland Kuhn
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $259,762
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-09-15 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10647530

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10647530, A Mobile App to Address Co-Occurring Sleep Problems and Heavy Alcohol Use among Veterans Outside of Care Settings (1R34AA030868-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10647530. Licensed CC0.

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