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- Title
Do health educator telephone calls reduce at-risk drinking among older adults in primary care?
- Authors
Lin, James C.; Karno, Mitchell P.; Lingqi Tang; Barry, Kristen L.; Blow, Frederic C.; Davis, James W.; Ramirez, Karina D.; Welgreen, Sandra; Hoffing, Marc; Moore, Alison; Tang, Lingqi; Moore, Alison A
- Abstract
<bold>Background: </bold>Alcohol screening and brief intervention for unhealthy alcohol use has not been consistently delivered in primary care as part of preventive healthcare.<bold>Objective: </bold>To explore whether telephone-based intervention delivered by a health educator is efficacious in reducing at-risk drinking among older adults in primary care settings.<bold>Design: </bold>Secondary analyses of data from a randomized controlled trial.<bold>Participants: </bold>Subjects randomized to the intervention arm of the trial (n = 310).<bold>Interventions: </bold>Personalized risk reports, advice from physicians, booklet about alcohol and aging, and up to three telephone calls from a health educator. All interventions were completed before the three-month follow-up.<bold>Measurements: </bold>Risk outcomes (at-risk or not at-risk) at 3 and 12 months after enrollment.<bold>Main Results: </bold>In univariate analyses, compared to those who remained at risk, those who achieved not at-risk outcome at 3 months were more likely to be women, Hispanic or non-white, have lower levels of education, consume less alcohol, drink less frequently, and have lower baseline number of risks. In mixed-effects logistic regression models, completing all three health educator calls increased the odds of achieving not at-risk outcome compared to not completing any calls at 3 months (OR 5.31; 95% CI 1.92-14.7; p = 0.001), but not at 12 months (OR 2.01; 95% CI 0.71-5.67; p = 0.18).<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Telephone-based intervention delivered by a health educator was moderately efficacious in reducing at-risk drinking at 3 months after enrollment among older adults receiving a multi-faceted intervention in primary care settings; however, the effect was not sustained at 12 months.
- Subjects
HEALTH education teachers; PRIMARY care; ALCOHOLISM; PREVENTIVE medicine; MEDICAL care
- Publication
JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2010, Vol 25, Issue 4, p334
- ISSN
0884-8734
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s11606-009-1223-2