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Brief Interventions for Substance Abuse: Implications for Health Related Quality of Life
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METHOD. Data was taken from the quasi-experimental evaluation of the Georgia Brief Assessment, Screening, Intervention, and Continuum of Care System (Georgia BASICS), and funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) from 2009-2013. The sample included patients from two urban emergency departments who screened at moderate or high risk for abuse of alcohol or other drugs: 740 patients received SBIRT services, and a non-randomly assigned comparison group of 712 patients received assessment only. We used full propensity score matching to achieve an optimal balance on multiple covariates including patient demographics, site, baseline HRQOL, and alcohol consumption frequency. Data were analyzed using weighted linear regression and p-values ≤ .05 were considered statistically significant.
RESULTS. Participants receiving SBIRT services reported significantly higher (B=3.95, SE=.56, p < .001) mental health composite scores at 6-month post-intervention than comparisons. At follow-up, intervention patients had scores just below the population average of 50, meaning that they reported better mental health than about 40% of the population. Comparisons’ scores declined to an average of 35,meaning they had better mental health than only 7% of the population. Differences between Intervention and Comparison patients on physical health composite scores did not reach statistical significance.
DISCUSSION. These results highlight the value of considering a broader range of outcomes in substance abuse prevention and treatment studies.
Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practicePublic health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Identify the need for early intervention on risky alcohol and illicit drug use as a public health intervention with potentially broad implications for health promotion.
Identify improvements in HRQOL as an important potential outcome of early intervention for substance use.
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a psychologist who evaluates the effectiveness of community based prevention and health promotion programs. I will be reporting on results from a 5-year intervention funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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.