Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jul:78:8-14.
doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2017.04.006. Epub 2017 Apr 13.

Documented brief intervention not associated with resolution of unhealthy alcohol use one year later among VA patients living with HIV

Emily C Williams  1 , Gwen T Lapham  2 , Jennifer F Bobb  3 , Anna D Rubinsky  4 , Sheryl L Catz  5 , Susan M Shortreed  6 , Kara M Bensley  7 , Katharine A Bradley  8
Affiliations

Documented brief intervention not associated with resolution of unhealthy alcohol use one year later among VA patients living with HIV

Emily C Williams et al. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Objective: Unhealthy alcohol use is particularly risky for patients living with HIV (PLWH). Brief interventions reduce drinking among patients with unhealthy alcohol use, but whether its receipt in routine outpatient settings is associated with reduced drinking among PLWH with unhealthy alcohol use is unknown. We assessed whether PLWH who screened positive for unhealthy alcohol use were more likely to resolve unhealthy drinking one year later if they had brief alcohol intervention (BI) documented in their electronic health record in a national sample of PLWH from the Veterans Health Administration.

Methods: Secondary VA clinical and administrative data from the electronic medical record (EMR) were used to identify all positive alcohol screens (AUDIT-C score≥5) documented among PLWH (10/01/09-5/30/13) followed by another alcohol screen documented 9-15months later. Unadjusted and adjusted Poisson regression models assessed the association between brief intervention (advice to reduce drinking or abstain documented in EMR) and resolution of unhealthy alcohol use (follow-up AUDIT-C<5 with ≥2 point reduction).

Results: Overall 2101 PLWH with unhealthy drinking (10/01/09-5/30/13) had repeat alcohol screens 9-15months later. Of those, 77% had brief intervention documented after their first screen, and 61% resolved unhealthy alcohol use at follow-up. Documented brief intervention was not associated with resolution [Adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.96, (95% CI 0.90-1.02)].

Conclusions: Documented brief intervention was not associated with resolving unhealthy alcohol use at follow-up screening among VA PLWH with unhealthy alcohol use. Effective methods of resolving unhealthy alcohol use in this vulnerable population are needed.

Keywords: Alcohol; Brief intervention; HIV; Unhealthy alcohol use.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

COMPETING INTERESTS

All other authors declare no potential competing interests. This study, including a HIPAA waiver of written consent, was approved by Institutional Review Boards at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and VA Puget Sound.

References

    1. Bradley KA, Johnson ML, Williams EC. Commentary on Nilsen et al.: The importance of asking patients—the potential value of patient report of brief interventions. Addiction. 2011;106(10):1757–1759. - PubMed
    1. Bradley KA, Lapham GT, Hawkins EJ, Achtmeyer CE, Williams EC, Thomas RM, Kivlahan DR. Quality concerns with routine alcohol screening in VA clinical settings. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2011;26(3):299–306. doi: 10.1007/s11606-010-1509-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bradley KA, Rubinsky AD, Lapham GT, Berger D, Bryson C, Achtmeyer C, Kivlahan DR. Predictive Validity of Clinical AUDIT-C Alcohol Screening Scores and Changes in Scores for Three Objective Alcohol-related Outcomes in a Veterans Affairs (VA) Population. Addiction. 2016 doi: 10.1111/add.13505. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Burman ML, Kivlahan DR, Buchbinder MB, Broglio K, Zhou XH, Merrill JO, Bradley KA. Alcohol-related advice for VA primary care patients: who gets it, who gives it? Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 2004;65(5):621–630. - PubMed
    1. Chander G, Hutton HE, Lau B, Xu X, McCaul ME. Brief intervention decreases drinking frequency in HIV-infected, heavy drinking women: results of a Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. 2015;70(2):137–145. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000000679. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types