Abstract
Healthcare settings frequently rank among the lowest for referring clients to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) was employed to improve SUD outcomes; yet, effectiveness evidence is still needed. We used secondary data from patients screened in federally qualified health centers in Iowa (N = 29,121) to investigate alcohol prescreening and hazardous drinking for patients presenting on multiple visits. We found that patients demonstrated reductions in positive prescreens (73.49 percentage points, 95% CI = 72.09–74.90) and hazardous drinking (13.73 percentage points, 95% CI = 12.28–15.17) from their first positive prescreen to their last prescreen. Further, a positive prescreen at clients’ last screening was significantly associated with males, White patients, and those with fewer SBIRT visits. Findings provide further evidence that SBIRT is effective in reducing alcohol use in a Midwest sample from healthcare centers receiving federal funding despite limitations inherent to all service data.
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Funding
This research was funded by a grant from the Iowa Department of Public Health (Grant no. 588 7 YM50H). All authors are employees of the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation (Consortium). The Consortium is funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health to perform the SBIRT program evaluation, and separately, to conduct academic research on SBIRT. SBIRT IOWA is operated by the Iowa Department of Public Health, Division of Behavioral Health, and funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.
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Because these data represent de-identified pre-existing service data collected by the Iowa Department of Public Health, there was no informed consent and the University of Iowa Human Subjects Office Institutional Review Board determined data to be non-human subjects and exempted this study from review.
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Sahker, E., Lancianese, D.A., Jones, D. et al. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment Demonstrates Effectiveness in Reducing Drinking in a Midwest American Service Sample. Int J Ment Health Addiction 18, 138–148 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-018-9953-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-018-9953-1