Wearables Could Help Understand the Nuances of Alcohol Consumption, Prevent Negative Consequences, Says Aaron Wagner

Aaron Wagner is a Research Dissemination Specialist in the Department of Communications and Marketing at the Penn State College of Health and Human Development. He also served as Science Writer from 2011 to 2020 at The Methodology Center in University Park, PA. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1997. 

On January 27, 2022, Aaron Wagner described the latest research from Penn State’s Department of Biobehavioral Health around using wearable technology to determine a person’s level of intoxication from alcoholic drinks. Michael Russell and other researchers found that level of intoxication can depend on several factors including the number of drinks, alcoholic content, the weight of the person and what they had eaten recently. Traditional breathalyzers can provide an accurate picture of the blood alcohol level at specific instants, such as at a traffic stop. However, they have certain limitations. Primarily, they require “active cooperation” and can be “intrusive”. Wearable or transdermal sensors measure the alcohol level in “imperceptible amounts of sweat”. This has the benefit of being less intrusive for the person drinking, and can provide a host of information that traditional techniques can’t. This would include “how much a person drank, how quickly they drank, and how long alcohol remained in their system”. These insights could be vital to preventing “negative consequences” such as automobile accidents, hangovers and sexual assault.

The Australian Government Department of Health stated that drinking alcohol can affect every individual differently. Since alcohol enters each part of the body, it also affects brain function and can have both short term and long-term effects. Short term effects also include slurred speech, memory loss, alcohol poisoning and violence towards others. According to the CDC, approximately 95,000 Americans die each year from alcohol-related causes. Wearable technology that could provide invaluable information about intoxication could reduce these negative outcomes in the future.

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