Nurse-provided screening and brief intervention for risky alcohol consumption by sexual health clinic patients
- 1Drug Health Services, Sydney South West Area Health Service, Sydney, Australia
- 2Discipline of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- 3Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Dr Elizabeth Proude, Drug Health Services, Ground Floor, Page Building, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Missenden Rd, Camperdown NSW 2050, Australia; eproude{at}med.usyd.edu.au
- Accepted 28 July 2008
- Published Online First 15 August 2008
Abstract
Objectives: Brief intervention for excessive alcohol consumption is effective yet not implemented widely. Alcohol misuse is implicated in unsafe sex and sexually transmitted infections and is common in clients of sexual health services. Our aims were to assess feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of screening and brief intervention for risky alcohol consumption by a nurse in a sexual health clinic.
Methods: Patients completed the AUDIT questionnaire on handheld computers. Those scoring ≥8 on AUDIT were asked to participate in the study and the 3 months’ follow-up and were randomised to intervention or control groups. The Drink-less package (based on WHO validated methods) was used to implement the brief intervention by a trained registered nurse.
Results: Of 519 (87%) who completed screening, 204 (39%) scored ≥8 on AUDIT (eligible), 184 agreed to follow-up and 133 completed it. At follow-up, both groups showed significant reductions in AUDIT scores. Mean scores decreased from 13.7 to 11.5 (control group) and 14.0 to 10.7 (intervention group); most (94%) recalled the intervention and 62% reported reducing drinking compared with 47% of controls (p<0.001). The nurse screening and intervention process was reported acceptable by 74% of patients at follow-up and a majority (71%) of staff.
Conclusions: Screening and brief intervention in a sexual health clinic for risky alcohol consumption is feasible, acceptable and effective in producing significant reductions in drinking as measured by AUDIT. Both intervention and control groups decreased consumption, suggesting that screening alone is sufficient to influence behaviour. Further study of brief intervention in this setting is appropriate.
Footnotes
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Funding: The Drug and Alcohol Council, New South Wales Health Department provided funding for the study. The funding body had no part in the conduct or design of the design.
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Competing interests: None.
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Ethics approval: Ethics approval for the study was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee of Sydney South West Area Health Service (RPA zone).
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Contributors: EP, KC and PH obtained the funding for the project. JdB took a substantial role in the follow-up and wrote a full report on which this paper is based. JL carried out the majority of the field work and wrote the first draft of the paper. EP was responsible for the conduct of the study, carried out a full analysis of results, wrote the second draft and completed subsequent revisions of the paper. KC and PH supervised the project, provided statistical advice, trained the research nurses and reviewed all versions of the paper prior to submission. All authors approved the final version.
