An interventional study of WayToServe Plus In-service Component and WayToServe Training Only in Alcohol Drinking, Alcohol Intoxication and Alcohol Use, Unspecified, sponsored by Klein Buendel, Inc.. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 19 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-15.
Sponsored by Klein Buendel, Inc. · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
Responsible beverage service (RBS) training for alcohol servers is a promising intervention for reducing driving while intoxicated (DWI) by alcohol. Training, certification, and in-service contact improves professionalism and effectiveness of prevention interventions delivered by community members such as alcohol servers. This SBIR Fast-track project will develop and test an in-service professional development component to the WayToServe® online RBS training to improve the effectiveness of RBS training in order to make further gains in reducing problem alcohol behavior in communities.
Among the interventions targeting driving while intoxicated (DWI) by alcohol, Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) training of alcohol servers has shown promise. RBS training is currently required or incentivized by 36 U.S. states and California will require it starting in 2022. The research team has shown that an online RBS training, named WayToServe®, was effective in two randomized trials. These results filled a gap in the literature on RBS training that is limited by the lack of randomized trials, poor measurement of training implementation, and almost exclusive focus on live training when online training predominates. The goal of this SBIR Fast-track research is to develop and test an in-service professional development component for alcohol servers trained by WayToServe to improve its effectiveness. It is intended to motivate servers to implement the RBS skills in the face of common barriers, provide support for RBS actions from a "community" of alcohol servers, and prevent natural degradation of skills over time. Rationale for this product is provided by past research showing that training, certification, and in-service contact improves professionalism and efficacy of community prevention interventions. Scientific premise is provided by the positive results of our trials on the WayToServe® training. The in-service component will be delivered through the WayToServe Facebook page that currently is "followed" by over 20,000 alcohol servers trained by WayToServe. The specific aims of Phase I are to: 1) develop content of in-service professional development on RBS skills with a) premises owners/ managers interviews and b) alcohol servers in New Mexico and Washington State trained by the WayToServe online RBS training through focus group discussions; 2) produce a prototype WayToServe Plus in-service professional development component in flowcharts and an initial library of Facebook posts, including text, graphics, and interactive elements and evaluate it for acceptability, usability, and engagement in focus groups and field pilot trial with alcohol servers in New Mexico and Washington State trained by the WayToServe online RBS training, and 3) determine feasibility of WayToServe Plus in-service professional development component and develop evaluation plans for Phase II research. Milestones will be an EAB-approved Phase I research plans and development of the content outline and WayToServe Plus prototype, evaluation of WayToServe Plus prototype, and feasibility assessment of the WayToServe Plus in-service professional development component. Phase II specific aims will achieve the milestones of full production of WayToServe Plus and a randomized trial testing its effectiveness by: 4) producing the full WayToServe Plus in-service professional development component and 5) conducting a randomized trial with 160 alcohol premises in New Mexico and Washington State evaluating effectiveness of WayToServe Plus on refusal of sales to PiP (primary outcome). The SBIR research is innovative as WayToServe Plus will be the first continuous in-service professional development for RBS and will increase the WayToServe training's effectiveness and commercial advantage with alcohol servers and corporate clients.
701 studies on the registry are indexed under Alcohol Drinking; 133 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 216 is above the median of 122 across 607 interventional studies indexed under Alcohol Drinking.
Browse Alcohol Drinking studies →Klein Buendel, Inc. is the lead sponsor of 35 studies on the registry; 2 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Intervention group of servers to participate in Facebook group.
Behavioral: WayToServe Plus In-service Component
Control group of servers who do not participate in Facebook group and receive WayToServe Training only.
Behavioral: WayToServe Training Only
Investigators will test WayToServe Plus in-service component's ability to increase refusal of service to intoxicated patrons in a randomized trial. A two-group randomized field trial (WayToServe training only \[comparison control\] v. WayToServe training plus WayToServe Plus in-service component \[intervention\]) with 2 assessment rounds (Baseline, Posttest) will yield a 2 factorial design. Investigators will randomly assign premises to WayToServe training and WayToServe Plus after baseline in Month 18, stratified by state and location. Remaining premises will receive WayToServe Training Only. All premises will be recruited to have servers complete WayToServe training. Servers in intervention group will be accepted into a Facebook private group after WayToServe training to receive in-service component with \~3 posts per week for 12 months. In Months 30-32, all premises will be posttested with PiP assessments (blind to condition).
Investigators will test WayToServe Plus in-service component's ability to increase refusal of service to intoxicated patrons in a randomized trial. A two-group randomized field trial (WayToServe Training Only \[comparison control\] v. WayToServe Plus In-service Component \[intervention\]) with 2 assessment rounds (Baseline, Posttest) will yield a 2 factorial design. Investigators will randomly assign premises to WayToServe Traiing Only after baseline in Month 18, stratified by state and location. In Months 30-32, all premises will be posttested with PiP assessments (blind to condition).
Refusal rate of alcohol service to apparently-intoxicated patrons
Primary outcome measure, refusal rate of alcohol service to apparently-intoxicated patrons, will be obtained via a pseudo-intoxicated patron (PiP) assessment. Confederate buyers will feign intoxication and record if servers agree to serve them an alcoholic beverage. PiP protocol presents a server with the most overt situation in which alcohol service should be refused, (i.e., when a patron is showing clear signs of intoxication), models behavior of patrons most at risk, and is relatively low cost.
Time frame: Change in refusal rate between baseline and 1 year posttest assessments
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Ran from Oct 2022 to primary completion in May 2026, 43 months.
Of 336 interventional studies with no phase under Alcohol Drinking, half reached primary completion within 24 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 45. This study's 43 months is above that.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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