Press Release
Emeryville, CA — People with alcohol use disorders experience significantly better recovery outcomes when attending mutual-help group meetings in person rather than online only, according to a new study released today by the Alcohol Research Group, a program of the Public Health Institute. The study examined people attending 12-step groups (like AA), SMART Recovery, LifeRing Secular Recovery, and Women for Sobriety, concluding that those seeking peer support for an alcohol use disorder should attend at least some in-person meetings to achieve the maximum benefits for alcohol use and problems.
Led by investigators from the Alcohol Research Group and Stanford University, the study analyzed data from two samples of U.S. adults attending mutual-help groups for an alcohol problem, both online and in person. All participants completed surveys at study entry and again at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Compared to participants attending meetings in-person only, participants attending meetings online only at study entry were about half as likely to report alcohol abstinence and almost three times as likely to report alcohol problems at the 6-month follow-up.
“We really hoped that online attendance would prove to be effective,” said Dr. Sarah Zemore, Principal Investigator and Senior Scientist at the Alcohol Research Group. “Online meetings are convenient and widely available, so they could theoretically support many people who face barriers to in-person attendance, such as young people and rural populations. Unfortunately, attending online meetings exclusively was associated with poorer outcomes.”
The researchers examined whether type of meeting attendance (meaning in-person only, online only, or both in-person and online) predicted alcohol use and problems at the next survey. They also examined associations between type of meeting attendance and mutual-help group involvement (measured as number of meetings attended and participation in key social roles and activities, such as volunteering). Results showed that participants attending meetings online only had worse alcohol outcomes than those attending in-person only, and that this was due to their lower levels of group involvement. Participants who attended meetings both in-person and online achieved outcomes comparable to those attending only in-person.
“The benefits of mutual-help group participation seem to come largely from social engagement with other attendees,” Dr. Zemore commented. “By this I mean establishing a regular meeting where you know others, volunteering for the group, leading meetings, and ultimately making friends who support your recovery. We found that online meeting attendance is less likely to lead to these kinds of social activities, and this negatively affects outcomes. So, the recommended path is to attend at least some in-person meetings where you can genuinely connect with others.”
The study included data from 1,152 U.S. adults who took part in the 2015 and 2021 Cohorts of the Peer Alternatives for Addiction (PAL) Study. The PAL Study Cohorts recruited participants in collaboration with mutual-help group directors and recovery-related organizations, using parallel designs and surveys that allowed the data to be combined for analysis. The study is published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Read the article: S.E. Zemore, L. Li, C.K. Lui, C. Timko, P. Martinez, A. Mericle, Effectiveness of online mutual-help group attendance for adults with alcohol use disorders in the pooled, longitudinal, U.S. National PAL Study cohorts, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2025, 112919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2025.112919
