Computerized Tool for Preventing Prenatal Drinking
Condition: Foetal Exposure During Pregnancy
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      An innovative, self-administered computerized screening and brief intervention (SBI) for
      drinking during pregnancy will be adapted for use with non-pregnant childbearing age women
      and its efficacy will be tested in a small trial. Study findings will inform a larger
      randomized control trial for a primary prevention tool with the potential for broad health
      impact.
    

Detailed description: 
      This study evaluates a recently piloted, self-administered, computerized tool for reducing
      prenatal drinking that added novel components of drink size assessment and drink size
      feedback to traditional screening and brief intervention (SBI). The bilingual (English and
      Spanish) electronic SBI or "e-SBI" will be adapted for use with non-pregnant women and a
      small trial of its efficacy will be conducted in two public health clinics. The effects of
      drink size assessment by itself and of depression as a modifier of e-SBI efficacy will also
      be studied. Study findings will help design a larger trial of e-SBI's efficacy for reducing
      prenatal alcohol use.

      An experimental design will be used for the proposed small trial. Two hundred women, who have
      not been pregnant in the past year and report alcohol at risky levels will be randomly
      assigned to e-SBI or usual care. Participants will complete baseline, 3-month and 6-month
      follow-up assessments. These assessments will examine drinking and pregnancy as well as
      possible negative outcomes, such as increased drug use associated with the e-SBI. To address
      methodological limitations in prior research, the study design incorporates drink size
      assessment to better measure drinking outcomes, minimizes assessment reactivity for controls
      at baseline, and includes a booster e-SBI at the 3-month follow up. This allows for the
      examination of whether drink size assessment reduces drinking by itself and if its effects
      are equivalent to that of the full e-SBI. With these design innovations, the study is
      expected to provide information that can be more rigorously assessed in a subsequent
      multi-arm trial. Because it sets the stage for a Phase II trial of e-SBI efficacy for
      reducing prenatal alcohol use, our proposed study is of significance for improved maternal
      and child health. Findings will also impact the larger intervention literature on
      cost-effective strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm.
    

Intervention name(s): Electronic SBI
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Bilingual (English and Spanish) e-SBI with four key components:
1) Beverage-specific drink size assessment; 2) Individualized feedback on the woman's drink sizes and on discrepancies between her drink size and the standard size for each beverage; 3) A personalized plan for reducing consumption which includes goal setting; and 4) an analysis of high risk situations for drinking alcohol, and suggested coping strategies.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: risky alcohol use; pregnancy