Objective: To reanalyze a clinical trial on the effectiveness of a Brief Intervention (BI) delivered by non-professionals to reduce risky alcohol drinking. Our previous null-hypothesis test of the effects of the BI yielded a 'non-significant' p-value, yet remained uninformative. Here we use the Bayesian paradigm which allows for expressing the probability of different effect sizes to better inform public policy decisions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Because of the shortage of health professionals in Chilean primary care, Health Technicians (HT) are providing Brief Interventions (BI) for risky alcohol consumption. We compared the efficacy of two AUDIT-linked interventions provided by HTs: an informative leaflet and a BI plus leaflet.
Methods: This is a parallel-group randomized controlled trial with 1:1 randomization.
Background: Harmful alcohol use is a leading cause of global disability and death. However, increased detection and brief intervention capacity of more severe alcohol use disorders has not been accompanied by increased availability of treatment services. Incorporating treatment for such disorders into primary care is of paramount importance for improving access and health outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAddiction
August 2017
Aim: To study the effectiveness of a brief intervention (BI) associated with the ASSIST (Alcohol Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test) for alcohol and illicit drug use as part of a systematic screening program implemented in primary care.
Design: A multi-center randomized open-label trial stratified using the ASSIST-specific substance involvement score (for alcohol, scores ranged from 11 to 15 and 16 to 20; and for the other substances from 4 to 12 and 13 to 20).
Setting: A total of 19 primary care centers (n = 520), eight emergency rooms (n = 195) and five police stations (n = 91) were evaluated.