Alcohol Screening and Brief Advice in NHS General Dental Practices: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial

TY - JOUR

T1 - Alcohol Screening and Brief Advice in NHS General Dental Practices

T2 - A Cluster Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial

AU - Ntouva, Antiopi

AU - Porter, Jessie

AU - Crawford, Mike J

AU - Britton, Annie

AU - Gratus, Christine

AU - Newton, Tim

AU - Tsakos, Georgios

AU - Heilmann, Anja

AU - Pikhart, Hynek

AU - Watt, Richard G

N1 - © The Author(s) 2019. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

PY - 2019/5/1

Y1 - 2019/5/1

N2 - AIM: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of screening for alcohol misuse and delivering brief advice to eligible patients attending NHS dental practices in London.METHODS: A two-arm cluster randomized controlled feasibility trial was conducted. Twelve dental practices were recruited and randomized to intervention and control arms. Participants attending for a dental check were recruited into the study and were eligible if they consumed alcohol above recommended levels assessed by the AUDIT-C screening tool. All eligible participants were asked to complete a baseline socio-demographic questionnaire. Six months after the completion of baseline measures, participants were contacted via telephone by a researcher masked to their allocation status. The full AUDIT tool was then administered. Alcohol consumption in the last 90 days was also assessed using the Form 90. A process evaluation assessed the acceptability of the intervention.RESULTS: Over a 7-month period, 229 participants were recruited (95.4% recruitment rate) and at the 6 months follow-up, 176 participants were assessed (76.9% retention rate). At the follow-up, participants in the intervention arm were significantly more likely to report a longer abstinence period (3.2 vs. 2.3 weeks respectively, P = 0.04) and non-significant differences in AUDIT (44.9% vs. 59.8% AUDIT positive respectively, P = 0.053) and AUDIT C difference between baseline and follow-up (-0.67 units vs. -0.29 units respectively, P = 0.058). Results from the process evaluation indicated that the intervention and study procedures were acceptable to dentists and patients.CONCLUSIONS: This study has demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of dentists screening for alcohol misuse and providing brief advice.

AB - AIM: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of screening for alcohol misuse and delivering brief advice to eligible patients attending NHS dental practices in London.METHODS: A two-arm cluster randomized controlled feasibility trial was conducted. Twelve dental practices were recruited and randomized to intervention and control arms. Participants attending for a dental check were recruited into the study and were eligible if they consumed alcohol above recommended levels assessed by the AUDIT-C screening tool. All eligible participants were asked to complete a baseline socio-demographic questionnaire. Six months after the completion of baseline measures, participants were contacted via telephone by a researcher masked to their allocation status. The full AUDIT tool was then administered. Alcohol consumption in the last 90 days was also assessed using the Form 90. A process evaluation assessed the acceptability of the intervention.RESULTS: Over a 7-month period, 229 participants were recruited (95.4% recruitment rate) and at the 6 months follow-up, 176 participants were assessed (76.9% retention rate). At the follow-up, participants in the intervention arm were significantly more likely to report a longer abstinence period (3.2 vs. 2.3 weeks respectively, P = 0.04) and non-significant differences in AUDIT (44.9% vs. 59.8% AUDIT positive respectively, P = 0.053) and AUDIT C difference between baseline and follow-up (-0.67 units vs. -0.29 units respectively, P = 0.058). Results from the process evaluation indicated that the intervention and study procedures were acceptable to dentists and patients.CONCLUSIONS: This study has demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of dentists screening for alcohol misuse and providing brief advice.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066163751&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/alcalc/agz017

DO - 10.1093/alcalc/agz017

M3 - Article

C2 - 30882135

SN - 0735-0414

VL - 54

SP - 235

EP - 242

JO - Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire)

JF - Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire)

IS - 3

M1 - agz017

ER -