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. 2022 Jul 15:3:26334895221112693.
doi: 10.1177/26334895221112693. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.

Training primary health care providers in Colombia, Mexico and Peru to increase alcohol screening: Mixed-methods process evaluation of implementation strategy

Daša Kokole  1 , Eva Jané-Llopis  1   2   3 , Guillermina Natera Rey  4 , Natalia Bautista Aguilar  4 , Perla Sonia Medina Aguilar  4 , Juliana Mejía-Trujillo  5 , Katherine Mora  5 , Natalia Restrepo  5 , Ines Bustamante  6 , Marina Piazza  6 , Amy O'Donnell  7 , Adriana Solovei  1 , Liesbeth Mercken  1   8 , Christiane Sybille Schmidt  9 , Hugo Lopez-Pelayo  10   11   12 , Silvia Matrai  10 , Fleur Braddick  10 , Antoni Gual  10   11   12 , Jürgen Rehm  3   13   14   15   16 , Peter Anderson  1   7 , Hein de Vries  1
Affiliations

Training primary health care providers in Colombia, Mexico and Peru to increase alcohol screening: Mixed-methods process evaluation of implementation strategy

Daša Kokole et al. Implement Res Pract. .

Abstract

Background: Initial results from the SCALA study demonstrated that training primary health care providers is an effective implementation strategy to increase alcohol screening in Colombia, Mexico and Peru, but did not show evidence of superior performance for the standard compared to the shorter training arm. This paper elaborates on those outcomes by examining the relationship of training-related process evaluation indicators with the alcohol screening practice.

Methods: A mix of convergent and exploratory mixed-methods design was employed. Data sources included training documentation, post-training questionnaires, observation forms, self-report forms and interviews. Available quantitative data were compared on outcome measure - providers' alcohol screening.

Results: Training reach was high: three hundred fifty-two providers (72.3% of all eligible) participated in one or more training or booster sessions. Country differences in session length reflected adaptation to previous topic knowledge and experience of the providers. Overall, 49% of attendees conducted alcohol screening in practice. A higher dose received was positively associated with screening, but there was no difference between standard and short training arms. Although the training sessions were well received by participants, satisfaction with training and perceived utility for practice were not associated with screening. Profession, but not age or gender, was associated with screening: in Colombia and Mexico, doctors and psychologists were more likely to screen (although the latter represented only a small proportion of the sample) and in Peru, only psychologists.

Conclusions: The SCALA training programme was well received by the participants and led to half of the participating providers conducting alcohol screening in their primary health care practice. The dose received and the professional role were the key factors associated with conducting the alcohol screening in practice.Plain Language Summary: Primary health care providers can play an important role in detecting heavy drinkers among their consulting patients, and training can be an effective implementation strategy to increase alcohol screening and detection. Existing training literature predominantly focuses on evaluating trainings in high-income countries, or evaluating their effectiveness rather than implementation. As part of SCALA (Scale-up of Prevention and Management of Alcohol Use Disorders in Latin America) study, we evaluated training as implementation strategy to increase alcohol screening in primary health care in a middle-income context. Overall, 72.3% of eligible providers attended the training and 49% of training attendees conducted alcohol screening in practice after attending the training. Our process evaluation suggests that simple intervention with sufficient time to practice, adapted to limited provider availability, is optimal to balance training feasibility and effectiveness; that booster sessions are especially important in context with lower organizational or structural support; and that ongoing training refinement during the implementation period is necessary.

Keywords: alcohol; depression; implementation; middle-income; primary health care; process evaluation; screening; training.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
SCALA study design.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
SCALA training curriculum.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Summary of key findings of SCALA training process evaluation.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Comparison of screeners and non-screeners on process evaluation variables.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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