There is suggestive but inconclusive evidence from the trials of a benefit in the use of brief interventions for risk factor modification in patients with coronary heart disease .
This review , however , supports the concept that brief interventions for patients with coronary heart disease can have beneficial effects on risk factor modification and consequently on progression of coronary heart disease .
Further trials using larger sample sizes need to be undertaken to demonstrate the benefits of brief structured intervention targeted at the modification of single or multiple risk factors
BACKGROUND The physical and psychosocial benefits of participation in cardiac rehabilitation following a coronary event have well been established .
Despite these benefits there is strong evidence that participation in traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs remains low .
Various models of cardiac rehabilitation have been implemented including the use of brief structured interventions to enable modification of coronary risk factors .
OBJECTIVES The objective of this review was to determine the effect of brief structured interventions on risk factor modification in patients with coronary heart disease .
Controlled evaluation of a brief intervention for HIV prevention among injecting drug users not in treatment.
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a brief intervention ( BI ) , a one-session motivational interview , in reducing HIV risk-taking behaviour among injecting drug users ( IDU ) not enrolled in any form of treatment for drug dependence . IDU were r and omly assigned to either BI or a non-intervention control condition ( NIC ) .  One hundred and twenty-one subjects were successfully contacted for a 3-month follow-up and 88 subjects were followed up at 6 months . There were significant reductions for the sample as a whole for injecting risk-taking subscale scores on the HIV Risk-taking Behaviour Scale between pre-treatment and follow-up . There was no significant change in sexual risk-taking behaviour . There were no significant differences between groups on any measure at 3- and 6-month follow-up . There are a number of possible reasons why the sample as a whole showed significant improvements from initial to follow-up assessment s. It is possible that , having had their attention directed to their risk-taking behaviour , subjects attempted to reduce their injecting risk-taking behaviour . If this is the case and subjects in the NIC condition can be considered as having received a BI , this suggests that BIs involving a personal risk assessment are effective in reducing risk behaviours associated with injecting . However , this suggestion could only be confirmed by comparison with a non- assessment control group
There is suggestive but inconclusive evidence from the trials of a benefit in the use of brief interventions for risk factor modification in patients with coronary heart disease .
This review , however , supports the concept that brief interventions for patients with coronary heart disease can have beneficial effects on risk factor modification and consequently on progression of coronary heart disease .
Further trials using larger sample sizes need to be undertaken to demonstrate the benefits of brief structured intervention targeted at the modification of single or multiple risk factors
BACKGROUND The physical and psychosocial benefits of participation in cardiac rehabilitation following a coronary event have well been established .
Despite these benefits there is strong evidence that participation in traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs remains low .
Various models of cardiac rehabilitation have been implemented including the use of brief structured interventions to enable modification of coronary risk factors .
OBJECTIVES The objective of this review was to determine the effect of brief structured interventions on risk factor modification in patients with coronary heart disease .