Editorial: Brief Interventions for Risky Drinkers

Efficacy of Brief Intervention for Alcohol Consumption during Pregnancy in Argentinean Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

INTRODUCTION

Although Brief Intervention (BI) has proven to reduce alcohol consumption during pregnancy in high income countries, there is no evidence from the Southern Cone of America. Thus, we conducted a study to assess BI efficacy among Argentinean pregnant women.

METHOD AND MATERIALS

We collected data on pregnant women receiving prenatal care at the public health system in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Women with less than 26 weeks of gestation (n = 486) were randomized to brief advice (BA) or BI. Three months later they were re-assessed; women with more than 26 weeks of gestation constituted a screening only control group (SC) (n = 154). Self-reported quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, frequency of binge drinking, and related problems after three months were used as outcomes. We performed generalized estimating equations and clinical significance analyses. Also, we obtained newborn health indicators from the city's health system database to use as objective outcomes. Women who did not participate in any of the three former conditions were randomly selected to constitute a non-screening control group (NSC) (n = 150). We compared objective outcomes among BI, BA, and NSC groups using the Wilcoxon rank test.

RESULTS

In comparison with SC, BI and BA reduced alcohol consumption, without differences between the latter two. Newborns of women who received BI and BA had better health indicators compared with the NSC group.

CONCLUSIONS

performing either a BI or BA reduces alcohol consumption among Argentinean pregnant women and might lead to healthier newborns.

Digital brief interventions for risky drinkers are not the panacea: A pilot study exploring barriers for its implementation according to professionals' perceptions

Digital brief interventions have emerged as an instrument to improve the implementation of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment programs for risky drinkers. However, trials in Catalonia have been unsuccessful. This study was aimed at researching professionals' perceptions regarding the usefulness of digital brief interventions in overcoming traditional barriers of face-to-face Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment and new barriers posed by the use of digital brief interventions. Professionals who participated in the Effectiveness of primary care based Facilitated Access to alcohol Reduction website (EFAR)digital brief intervention clinical trial were surveyed on April 2017 on the following areas: (1) satisfaction, (2) usefulness, (3) perceived ability of digital interventions on overcoming traditional barriers and (4) perceived new barriers of digital interventions. Sixty-eight professionals completed the survey. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using the level of professional engagement with the project as the dependent variable, barriers as independent variables and socio-demographic characteristics as covariables. Of all professionals, 79.4 percent were satisfied with their participation in the project, but only 26.5 percent perceived the website as useful. Low engagement was associated with the perceived lack of feedback (0.22; 95% confidence interval: 0.05 -0.88), perception that it was difficult to use among the elderly(0.22; 95 confidence interval: 0.05 -0.091) and among low socioeconomic population (0.14; 95% confidence interval: 0.03 -0.64). The majority of the participants indicated that digital brief intervention for risky drinkers succeeded in overcoming most of the traditional barriers. However, new barriers emerged as difficulties for implementing digital brief interventions in the Catalan Primary Health Care System. Usefulness perception is a key factor, which must be addressed in any proposed intervention in primary care.