A new, wrist-worn biosensor that detects alcohol consumption could eventually be used to help people reduce their drinking and associated harms, according to new research.

“Some of these harms include alcohol-induced blackouts, alcohol-related injuries, and drunk driving,” said Veronica Richards, postdoctoral scholar at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center and lead author of a paper on the study published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

The device measures the wearer’s transdermal alcohol concentration every 20 seconds and holds promise for gathering real-time or near-real-time data on alcohol use, according to Richards. Transdermal alcohol concentration—the amount of alcohol expelled in a person’s sweat—is directly linked to blood alcohol concentration (BAC), the standard measure of intoxication used by researchers and law enforcement.

Because the device resembles a smartwatch, people may be more likely to wear them as compared to a larger ankle-worn device typically used in law enforcement, Richards said.

The preliminary study evaluated the device for how accurately it could detect drinking and non-drinking days, as well as the number of drinks consumed.

“The device works to capture dynamics of drinking,” Richards said. “We can tell if someone is drinking a greater quantity versus a lower quantity, and we can see peak transdermal alcohol concentration. We’re able to see patterns of people who may be drinking at faster rates to get to their peak faster. This type of data can inform interventions and lead to harm reduction.”

This is one of the first studies to test the biosensor in a naturalistic setting, Richards said. In addition to passively collecting data through the wrist-worn sensor, the research team used surveys about alcohol use over two weeks to calculate how successful the device was in capturing drinking and non-drinking days.

Richards cautioned that human coders are still needed to interpret the data from the wrist-worn sensor. She said that the device can pick up on alcohol from personal products such as perfume, lotion or hand sanitizer.

“This study was done in 2020, so people — especially the healthcare workers in our study — were using hand sanitizer. We needed to tease out the accurate ‘hits’ on whether the alcohol levels were coming from drinking,” Richards said.

A group of consumers is currently participating in a beta test of the device. Until recently, it had only been used by researchers.

Richards said that future improvements in machine learning could result in more accurate readings for alcohol biosensors, leading people to being able to monitor their own drinking. “For example, if your transdermal alcohol concentration level rises at a fast rate, the device could alert you to slow down or stop drinking,” she said.

Richards conducted the study in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Florida Southern HIV Alcohol Research Consortium, with financial support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

This type of data can inform interventions and lead to harm reduction.”

– Veronica Richards, Postdoctoral Fellow in the PRC’s Prevention and Methodology Training Program