Clinical trial NCT04164940: Patient Trajectories for Older Adults Admitted to Hospital for Alcohol-related Problems
Official title: A Multi-centre Registry Study on Patient Trajectories After Interventions for Alcohol-related Health Problems in Somatic Hospital Wards, for People in Late Adulthood (60+)
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Conditions: Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol; Harmful Use
Health Risk Behaviors
Alcohol Dependence
Lead sponsor: Helse Stavanger HF
Sponsor class: OTHER_GOV
Collaborators: name: Helse Vest
name: Helse Fonna
name: Helse Møre og Romsdal HF
name: Sorlandet Hospital HF
name: Helse Sor-Ost
name: Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital
name: Oslo University Hospital
name: Vestre Viken Hospital Trust
First posted: 2019-11-15
Enrollment: 500
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 21
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: OTHER
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Patients 21 years or older admitted to medical or surgical hospital wards offering some kind of screening and brief alcohol intervention as part of the daily routine, and without a prior diagnosis of AUD or SUD.

Brief summary: Alcohol is contributing to many health problems and disorders, as well as accidents and social problems. Alcohol consumption has been on the rise the past 25 years, especially in Norway. The highest increase is found in older adults, in line with the development in most other countries in the western world. Older adults have a higher risk for alcohol related health problems, due to age related physiological changes, medical conditions and medications. Still, alcohol use is seldom addressed for older people. This means that older people rarely receive help to change alcohol habits.

Norwegian health authorities have issued mandates ordering the regional health trusts to implement strategies in somatic hospital wards, mental health services and drug treatment services to identify and treat alcohol and drug problems affecting the patients' health.

In this observational study we will explore patient trajectories three years prior to and three years after an admittance to hospital where risky or harmful alcohol consumption is identified and brief interventions are delivered. Hospitals that have implemented such strategies are invited to the study. Patient trajectories are studied in national health registries. This will provide important knowledge on what characterizes the patients identified, and what happens after they have received a brief intervention related to a hospital admittance.

Detailed description: This is a multi-centre registry study in Norwegian medical and surgical hospitals. The project is focusing on patients aged 60+, receiving an intervention for alcohol-related health problems in somatic hospital wards in one year, and without a previous history of referral or treatment in specialized health care for an alcohol or drug problem. Other age groups of adults will be used as control groups. The included patients will also be their own control group, where we compare registry data on the trajectories three years following the alcohol intervention with registry data from the three years preceding the intervention.

The recruited hospitals will have different strategies for identification of and interventions for alcohol-related health problems, and the choice of methods is thus outside of our control. All inhabitants in Norway are registered with a personal identification number. This individual identifier makes the linkage between the participants and the different registries possible. Data from these registries will enable the study of serious incidents, as well as of diagnoses, medications and other treatments, welfare and benefits, and causes of death. Data will be gathered three years retrospectively and 3 years prospectively, related to the index hospital stay where alcohol is addressed and a brief intervention is delivered.

Inclusion criteria for patients are age 21+, no previous treatment history for drug or alcohol problems in specialized health care, admitted to medical or surgical hospital ward, identified risky or harmful alcohol consumption, accepting an alcohol intervention and accepting study participation. Baseline data collected are AUDIT C, question no 10 from the full AUDIT and classification of alcohol consumption (risky or harmful). All other variables are extracted from the national health registries (reimbursement data from primary health care and secondary health care, prescription database, Cause of death registry, Norwegian Trauma Registry and social security data, marital status, professional status).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age 21 or older, no previous alcohol use disorder or substance use disorder, admitted to hospital which has implemented screening and brief alcohol intervention strategies, written consent to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

* specialized treatment for alcohol use disorder og drug use disorder during the three years prior to recruitment

Primary outcomes:
measure: Alcohol use disorder (AUD)
timeFrame: Three years
measure: Prescriptions for AUD
timeFrame: Three years
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Health care
timeFrame: Three years
measure: Trauma
timeFrame: Three years
measure: Death
timeFrame: Three years
measure: Prescriptions for addictive drugs
timeFrame: Three years
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Stavanger
country: Norway
facility: StavangerUH
Study officials:
affiliation: Helse Stavanger HF
name: Torgeir G Lid, MD PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: