Automated Telephone Follow-up in the Swedish Prison and Probation Services

Automated Telephone Follow-up in the Swedish Prison and Probation Services. A Randomized Controlled Trail.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether automated telephony may be used for daily assessments of paroled offenders, and whether a brief intervention based on these daily assessments may result in a more positive development compared to daily assessments only.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Alcohol Consumption; Substance Abuse; Affect
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Brief feedback; Behavioral: Daily assessments

Detailed Description

To study whether automated telephony could be used in paroled offenders to perform daily assessment of variables associated with recidivism in crime and to study the effects of a brief intervention based on these assessments during 30 days following probation.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 108
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Sweden
  • Norrköping, Sweden
    • The Swedish Prison and Probation Services, Region South and Region East

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Convicted criminals subject to parole
• Access to a mobile telephone
• Assigned parole officer at parole

Exclusion Criteria:

• No knowledge of spoken Swedish
• Additional intervention such as intensive supervision with electronic monitoring, or in-patient care at a health and rehabilitation clinic

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Daily Assessments & Brief Feedback; Daily assessments during 30 days after parole and a feedback intervention based on these daily assessments.	Behavioral: Brief feedback; A brief feedback was given on the results of the daily assessments, including a recommendation to the paroled offender and a email report was sent to the probation officer.; Behavioral: Daily assessments; Daily assessment of stress, mental symptoms, alcohol and substance use during 30 consecutive days after parole.
Active Comparator: Daily assessments; Daily assessments during 30 days after parole.	Behavioral: Daily assessments; Daily assessment of stress, mental symptoms, alcohol and substance use during 30 consecutive days after parole.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mental symptoms, SCL-8D	Mental Symptoms, assessed with SCL-8D (Fink et al. A Nordic multicentre investigation. Part I: Method and prevalence of psychiatric morbidity. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 1995;92(6):409-418).	During 30 days after probation

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Stress	Stress assessed with the Arnetz and hasson stress questionnaire(Andersson C et al. Measurement properties of the Arnetz and Hasson stress questionnaire in Swedish university freshmen. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. 2009;37(3):273-279)	During 30 days after probation
Stress	Daily Assessment of Daily Experience (Stone AA, Neale JM. Development of a methodology for assessing daily experiences. In: Baum A, Singer J, eds. Advances in Environmental Psychology: Environment and Health. Vol 4. New York: Erlbaum; 1982:49-83).	During 30 days after probation
Desire to use alcohol and drugs	Desire to use alcohol and drugs (Bohn MJ, Krahn DD, Staehler BA. Development and initial validation of a measure of drinking urges in abstinent alcoholics. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 1995;19(3):600-606).	During 30 days after probation
Current use of alcohol and drugs	Current use was then assessed by simply asking whether the offender had drunk alcohol or used any drugs the previous day.	During 30 days after probation

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Region Skane
• Collaborators: Lund University; Malmö University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Claes Andersson, PhD, Lund university and Malmö university

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: December 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2010
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 4, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 12, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): November 16, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): November 16, 2012
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 12, 2012
• Last Verified: November 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Stress; Substance use; Alcohol consumption; Paroled offenders; Interactive Voice Response; Mental symptoms
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Drinking Behavior; Substance-Related Disorders; Alcohol Drinking
• Other Study ID Numbers: 535629 (Other Identifier: The Swedish Prison and Probation Services)