The effectiveness of an ultra-brief intervention in 1 min for hazardous drinking in a general hospital setting: A quasi-randomized pilot trial.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated the effectiveness of an ultra-brief intervention (Ultra-BI) for patients with hazardous drinking behaviors admitted to a general hospital.

METHOD

In a quasi-randomized controlled trial at a general hospital in Japan, we assigned participants to intervention or control groups based on the last digit of their patient ID (odd for intervention, even for control). The study included inpatients with Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) scores of ≥5 for men and ≥4 for women. The intervention involved providing advice and feedback within 1 min, accompanied by a leaflet on alcohol-related issues (Ultra-BI). The control group did not receive any intervention. The primary outcome was average weekly alcohol consumption at 3 months postintervention.

RESULTS

The study included 68 participants. The intervention group showed a reduction in average weekly alcohol consumption by -69.7 g/week compared to the control group (95% confidence interval [CI] -145.7 to 6.3 g/week,  = 0.07). Post-hoc analysis, adjusting for baseline values, indicated a between-group difference of -78.7 g/week (95% CI -135.2 to -22.2 g/week,  = 0.007).

CONCLUSION

This pilot trial suggests the potential effectiveness of the Ultra-BI in general hospital wards. Further large-scale studies are required to confirm these findings.