142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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308890
Association of Alcohol-Use Disorders Identification Test and Readiness to Change Score in Alcohol-Related Emergency Department Visit

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Wirachin Hoonpongsimanont, MS, MD , Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Orange, CA
Sith Riantawan, BS , Biola University, La Mirada, CA
Vincent Chang, BS , Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA
Bharath Chakravarthy, MD, MPH , Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Orange, CA
Craig L. Anderson, DHSc, PhD , Center for Trauma and Injury Prevention Research, University of California, Irvine-School of Medicine, Orange, CA
Shahram Lotfipour, MD, MPH , Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA
Background: From increased risk of major health issues to large economic costs, the negative consequences of alcohol abuse invade both macro and micro levels of societies. This study investigated various factors and characteristics associated with high Readiness-to-Change (RTC) scores. From the results, health professionals will be able to prioritize resources and more effectively provide brief intervention to patients who are most receptive to behavioral modification.

Method: The study was conducted at a tertiary care university hospital ED using Computerized Alcohol Screening and brief Intervention (CASI). Adult patients who reported drinking more than the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) guideline were included in the study. We excluded incarcerated, psychiatric, and patients who were unable to give consent.  Multinomial logistic regression examined patient characteristics including age, Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) scores, trauma-relatedness visit, education, insurance status, language, cigarette and illicit drug usage.

Results: From 1,285 electronic medical records, 512 indicated higher alcohol consumption than NIAAA recommendations. The 512 charts were categorized, with 55 alcohol related and 457 non-alcohol related ED visits. Using multinomial logistic regression, we predicted RTC scores. Patients of age group 50-64 had a 62% lower chance of reporting high RTC score than patients of age group 22-29. Additionally, patients in age group 22-29 had a higher probability of reporting high RTC than any other age group. Other patient characteristics did not predict either moderate or high RTC scores.

Conclusion: Our study indicates resources should be targeted at younger patients in their twenties and thirties.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe the benefit that health professionals may be able to achieve from the results of investigating factors and characteristics associated with high Readiness-to-Change(RTC) scores.

Keyword(s): Alcohol Use

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal investigator on multiple studies focusing on alcohol screening and brief intervention.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4176.0: Screening for Substance Abuse in Medical Settings