Abstract
Alcohol abuse is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States,
contributing to over 100,000 deaths and costing society over 185 billion dollars each
year. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the American College
of Emergency Physician's brief alcohol use intervention brochure on patients' hazardous drinking behavior and knowledge of safe alcohol use. We conducted
a controlled trial comparing Emergency Department (ED) subjects receiving the alcohol
use intervention brochure vs. receiving no brochure. One-month outcome measures included
the following: 1) change in days of hazardous drinking; 2) change in knowledge of
safe alcohol use; and 3) movement along a readiness-to-change continuum for excessive
alcohol use. Of 277 subjects, 252 (91.0%) agreed to participate, and 188 of these
(74.6%) were successfully contacted for 1-month follow-up assessment. We did not find
any significant decreases in days of hazardous drinking or increases in knowledge
of safe drinking limits for either the intervention or comparison groups. However,
among the subgroup of excessive alcohol users (n = 100), we found that significantly
more intervention subjects had advanced along the readiness-to-change continuum than
comparison subjects (p < 0.01). This effect was even greater among the intervention group subjects who stated
that they read the brochure (p < 0.001). A brief alcohol use intervention brochure does not affect ED patients'
hazardous drinking behavior or knowledge of safe alcohol use. The brochure, however,
may affect certain patients' motivation to change their drinking behavior. Changing
drinking behavior requires more than simply handing out a brochure in the ED; referral
to community resources for those motivated to change is likely an important component
to successful management of this problem.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 08, 2008
Accepted:
December 22,
2007
Received in revised form:
June 15,
2007
Received:
March 10,
2006
Footnotes
Dr. Wang is currently with the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Department of Emergency Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.
This study was supported by an Excellence in Academic Medicine grant from the State of Illinois Department of Public Aid and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
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Copyright
© 2010 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
