Intervention with relatives, alcohol and alcohol users plus other drugs: a clinical trial

Primary Health Care (PHC) may be a possibility for access to alcohol users who use risk or dependence and Brief Intervention (IB) is a possible intervention. Thus, this clinical trial randomized by cluster aimed to verify the effectiveness of IB when compared to the control group. The participants of the study (Intervention Group - IG - and Control Group - CG) were contacted by a home visit after indicating the Family Health Strategy (ESF) services of the West Region of Health of Ribeirão Preto/São Paulo state. The included users were users older than 18 years and with consumption score >= 7, according to AUDIT score. The instruments used were AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test), sociodemographic profile and Alcohol consumption diary. After the interventions, follow-up was performed one month and six months after the last intervention. The quantitative measures of outcome were the score in the AUDIT instrument, in which the changes in the instrument score were used as a benchmark to verify the effectiveness of the interventions. In the IG, a semi-structured interview was also carried out. The statistical analysis was done using Multi Level Linear Regression for the study sample (23 participants) and the same with the simulated sample of 30, 50 and 100 hypothetical participants. The 23 participants (12 from IG and 11 from CG) had a mean age of 48.2 years, of which 16 were men (nine in IG and seven in CG). Over the years of study, the mean was 7.8 years (mean IG was 9.5 and in CG 6.3 years). In total, 323 home visits were carried out. Regarding consumption, the most chosen beverage was beer and 15 of the 23 participants could not express how felt before drinking alcohol. Concerning the use of other drugs in life, ten participants in the sample used only alcohol (four from IG and six from CG). Seven participants used alcohol and tobacco (four IG and three CG). Five participants were users of multiple drugs (3 IG and 2 CG). Among the multiple drugs, the most common were marijuana and cocaine. On the behavior of abusive consumption episodic, the most abusive consumption ranged from 2.85 to 16.2 doses. The average AUDIT during the follow up did not differ much. The mean AUDI of the IG was 15.5 (T0), 16.25 (T1) and 11.6 (T2). For CG, the mean was 15.36 (T0), 8.1 (T1), 16.36 (T2). Concerning the results of the mixed multilevel effect, in the actual sample of this study there was no significant difference (p = 0.80) between the intervention and control groups, although the intervention effect was observed. Regarding the data of the simulation with sample size of 30, 50 and 100 hypothetical participants, it was not statistically significant also, although the effect was maintained. Regarding the qualitative results, processed in three classes by the software Alceste, 74% of the textual content was analyzed, with a wealth of words of 94.05%. Regarding Class 1, 33% of the analysis corresponds to the general context of drinking, people and occasions that promote or discourage drinking, where the incentive can be encounters with friends, negative feelings and social relations. Class 2 accounted for 28% of the analysis and refers to the individual being dependent of drugs in general, not just alcohol, placing the consumption of all substances in the same context. As for Class 3, higher class with 39%, refers to the individual regarding the frequency, quantity and abandonment of consumption. The knowledge of qualitative aspects showed us that the consumption linked to the daily habits seems to be related to patterns of high consumption monthly doses and, therefore, more harmful, even if in this sample it was observed that the consumption is high also possibly due to lack of guidance and conversations with professional about the habit of drinking. As the social experiences were related to the consumption high doses of alcohol, perhaps provide spaces and moments of leisure free alcohol could help in the diminution or abstinence to the alcohol