{"doi":"10.1111/add.70172","title":"Changes in alcohol‐related social network composition mediate the effects of AA meeting attendance on drinking following a recovery attempt in adults with alcohol use disorder","abstract":"AIMS: To assess whether changes in social network drinking is a mechanism of behaviour change responsible for the benefits of attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) during a recovery attempt. DESIGN: An observational longitudinal cohort study investigating mechanisms of behaviour change among adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD) reporting initiation of a substantial recovery attempt. SETTING: Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: From a larger observational cohort, participants were individuals who reported a substantive increase in AA attendance (increase of ≥1 + meetings/week) from baseline to 6 weeks (n = 71) and a propensity score-matched control group of participants who did not increase AA attendance (n = 71). Propensity score matching used demographics and baseline drinking. MEASUREMENTS: Baseline assessment and a 6-week follow-up assessment, including outcome variables: diagnostic assessment of AUD, timeline followback interview [percent drinking days (%DD) and percent heavy drinking days (%HDD)]; and exposure variables: formal egocentric social network assessment collecting egocentric social network metrics and using up to 20 network alters. FINDINGS: Compared with the control group, participants who increased AA participation statistically significantly reduced %DD [mean (M) = 5.67% (standard error of the mean, SEM = 1.81) vs 30.91% (3.59); F = 46.22, P < 0.001] and %HDD [5.21% (1.79) vs 23.32% (3.14); F = 28.34, P < 0.001] and exhibited statistically significantly improved social network indicators including reduced network drinking frequency [1.99 (0.08) vs 2.96 (0.09); F = 42.26, P < 0.001] and severity [1.68 (0.06) vs 2.34 (0.08); F = 40.51, P < 0.001]. Changes in social network drinking statistically significantly mediated the relationship between changes in AA attendance and reductions in %DD [b = -0.06 (0.02), P = 0.01] and %HDD [b = -0.05 (0.02), P = 0.04] at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced social network drinking appears to be one mechanism of behaviour change associated with the positive effects of Alcoholics Anonymous on drinking behavior during recovery.","journal":"Addiction","year":2025,"id":546647,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9587,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1438285,"name":"Liah Rahman","orcid":"0000-0001-7409-3068","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":741798,"name":"Desmond Singh","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":908978,"name":"Kyla Belisario","orcid":"0000-0001-5403-9531","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1438286,"name":"Amanda Doggett","orcid":"0000-0001-8538-432X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1314164,"name":"Allan Clifton","orcid":"0000-0001-8249-8065","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52990,"name":"Robert L. Stout","orcid":"0000-0003-2596-241X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":257693,"name":"John F. Kelly","orcid":"0000-0001-6915-0750","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":308313,"name":"James MacKillop","orcid":"0000-0002-8695-1071","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":723544,"name":"Emily E. Levitt","orcid":"0000-0002-2675-7744","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":37,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:53:32.285899Z","pmid":"40903828","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}