Randomized Trial of an Innovative Electronic Screening and Brief Intervention for Reducing Drinking Among Women of Childbearing Age

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of an innovative, self-administered, electronic Screening and Brief Intervention (e-SBI) in English and Spanish, "DrinkWise," for reducing drinking among nonpregnant women of childbearing age.

Methods: A parallel design, phase 1 trial included 185 nonpregnant women reporting risky drinking (8 or more drinks in a week or 3 or more drinks in a day) who were recruited from 2 publicly funded Nutritional Assistance for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program sites in the United States from 2016 to 2017. Participants were 18 to 44 years in age, 75% of Hispanic ethnicity, 44% Spanish speakers, 30% had not completed high school, and 15% were currently breastfeeding. Participants were randomized to receive (intervention condition, n = 99) or not receive (control condition, no intervention, n = 86) DrinkWise and followed at 3 and 6 months.

Results: Women receiving DrinkWise had greater reductions in the odds of self-reported weekly alcohol use (odds ratio [OR] = 0.22, SE = 0.12, P < 0.01) and heavy alcohol use (OR = 0.23, SE = 0.14, P < 0.05) at 6-month follow-up than controls, with no group differences at 3-month follow-up. Compared with heavy drinking controls, heavy drinkers receiving DrinkWise showed a trend (P = 0.06) for greater reductions in drink (pour) size from 3- to 6-month follow-up.

Conclusions: DrinkWise may be efficacious in reducing drinking among low-income women of childbearing age and provides a low-cost tool for increasing access to recommended SBI among childbearing-age women. Studies should continue to build DrinkWise's evidence base.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, https://ichgcp.net/clinical-trials-registry/NCT02337361.

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTERESTS

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of financial, personal, political, intellectual, or religious interests.

Figures

Figure 1.

Recruitment and follow-up overview

Figure 2.

Predicted Probabilities for Alcohol Use Outcomes with greater reduction in the DrinkWise (e-SBI) condition versus controls