TOPLINE

A single nurse-delivered telephonic brief intervention (BI) was associated with lower Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores among women with risky and harmful alcohol use in primary care through 6 months compared with feedback alone, though effects attenuated over time.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers conducted a single-blind trial of 151 women with risky or harmful alcohol use (mean age, 32.8 years) attending four primary healthcare centers in central São Paulo, Brazil, between June 2021 and February 2022.
• The AUDIT scores (0-40; higher scores indicate greater risk) of those included ranged from 8 to 19.
• Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a nurse-led telephonic BI (n = 79) involving a single session of approximately 10 minutes based on FRAMES — feedback, responsibility, advice, menu of options, empathy, and self-efficacy — or only feedback (control group; n = 72) in which they were told that their alcohol intake exceeded that recommended by the World Health Organization and should be reduced, with no information provided on strategies or materials to reduce intake.
• AUDIT scores were the primary outcome, tracked at baseline and at 3, 6, and 24 months.

TAKEAWAY

• AUDIT scores in the intervention group were significantly lower at 6 months (mean, 5.39) than at baseline (mean, 7.83), representing the lowest scores observed across all follow-up periods.
• The scores rose to 9.16 by 24 months in the intervention group, exceeding baseline levels.
• AUDIT scores in the feedback-only group rose from a baseline mean of 6.1 to 7.41 at 3 months, fell to 6.8 at 6 months, and rose again to 7.9 at 24 months.
• Race (P = .035) and household income (P = .024) were the only variables that showed a significant association with AUDIT scores, suggesting "the influence of socioeconomic factors on alcohol consumption patterns among women."

IN PRACTICE

"Integrating this cost-effective, electronically delivered BI into public health policies could help address the growing problem of alcohol misuse among women and provide an effective strategy for targeted interventions," the authors wrote.

SOURCE

The study was led by Ana Vitória Corrêa Lima, School of Nursing, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. It was published online on October 2 in Archives of Women's Mental Health.

LIMITATIONS

Data collection coincided with the COVID pandemic. The researchers did not set in advance what change in AUDIT scores would count as clinically important, participants' health conditions were captured only at enrollment, and drinking was self-reported.

DISCLOSURES

The publication costs were supported by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES). Two authors received CAPES scholarships. The authors reported no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.