Abstract
Background: Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABI) have been implemented throughout Scotland since 2008 aiming to reduce hazardous drinking through a Scottish government funded initiative delivered in a range of setting including Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments.
Purpose: To study the extent to Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABI) is associated with later health service use.
Method: An opportunistic informatics approach was applied. A unique patient identifier was used to link patient data with core datasets spanning two years previous and two years post ABI. Variables included inpatient attendance, outpatient attendance, psychiatric admissions, A&E attendance and prescribing. Patients (N = 1704) who presented at A&E departments reported an average alcohol consumption of more than 8 units daily received the ABI. Fast Alcohol Screening Test (FAST) was used to assess patients for hazardous alcohol consumption. Multilevel linear modelling was employed to predict post-intervention utilisation using pre-ABI variables and controlling for person characteristics and venue.
Results: Significant decrease in A&E usage was found at one and two years following the ABI intervention. Previous health service use was predictive of later service use. A single question (Item 4) on the FAST was predictive of A&E attendance at one and two years.
Conclusions: This investigation and methodology used provides support for the delivery of the ABI. However it cannot be ascertained as to whether this is due to the ABI, or simply as a result of making contact with a specialist in the addiction field.
Purpose: To study the extent to Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABI) is associated with later health service use.
Method: An opportunistic informatics approach was applied. A unique patient identifier was used to link patient data with core datasets spanning two years previous and two years post ABI. Variables included inpatient attendance, outpatient attendance, psychiatric admissions, A&E attendance and prescribing. Patients (N = 1704) who presented at A&E departments reported an average alcohol consumption of more than 8 units daily received the ABI. Fast Alcohol Screening Test (FAST) was used to assess patients for hazardous alcohol consumption. Multilevel linear modelling was employed to predict post-intervention utilisation using pre-ABI variables and controlling for person characteristics and venue.
Results: Significant decrease in A&E usage was found at one and two years following the ABI intervention. Previous health service use was predictive of later service use. A single question (Item 4) on the FAST was predictive of A&E attendance at one and two years.
Conclusions: This investigation and methodology used provides support for the delivery of the ABI. However it cannot be ascertained as to whether this is due to the ABI, or simply as a result of making contact with a specialist in the addiction field.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 47-52 |
| Journal | Drug and Alcohol Dependence |
| Volume | 188 |
| Early online date | 30 Apr 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2018 |
Keywords
- Alcohol Brief Intervention
- Screening
- Informatics
Access to Document
- Baldacchino_2018_DAD_ABI_AAM
© 2018 Elsevier B. V. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.03.035
