Brief intervention protocol by telephone delivered by nurses to patients with harmful alcohol use in primary health care: A feasibility trial

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the feasibility of a brief intervention protocol by telephone performed by nurses in primary health care facilities.

Methods: A nonrandomized single-arm feasibility study was performed. The proposed intervention of this study is the Brief Intervention carried out by the nurse delivered by telephone, synchronously with alcohol users. The brief intervention is a motivational approach based on the FRAMES model, with its components being: Feedback, Responsibility, Advice, Menu of options, Empathy and Self-efficacy. To assess the feasibility of the protocol, we evaluated the procedure for enrolling participants, the acceptability of the protocol to participants, the satisfaction of the participants, convenience and treatment continuity. The quantitative data analysis was carried out in the R software, using descriptive statistics, categorical variables were reported by frequencies and percentages. For continuous variables, medians, means, standard deviations and range values were computed.

Results: We followed the participants (n = 165) from baseline (T₀) until 3 months (T₁) and 6 months (T₂) after the brief intervention. The partial effect suggests a reduction in alcohol consumption, and statistically significant differences were observed from baseline before the BI, with a decrease of 0.66 points in AUDIT scores at T₁. Among the patients who completed the 3-month follow-up, 48 % reported a positive experience of receiving the brief intervention by the nurses, and 44 % reported a decrease in alcohol consumption.

Conclusions: Brief intervention delivered by telephone was considered feasible and acceptable by primary health care patients, and they perceived improvement in their alcohol consumption after receiving the BI performed by nurses.