Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Research Article

Implementation of Computer-delivered Brief Alcohol Intervention in HIV Clinical Settings: Who Agrees to Participate?

¹Department of Health, Behavior and Society Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Baltimore, USA

²Department of Medicine, University of Washington Seattle, USA

³Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA

⁴Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, USA

⁵Department of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, USA

⁶Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA

Corresponding Author:

Mary E. McCaul
550 N. Broadway
Suite 115 Baltimore
MD 21205
Tel: 410-955-9526
E-mail: mmccaul1@jhmi.edu

Received date: Feb 23, 2016; Accepted date: Apr 04, 2015; Published date: Apr 10, 2015

Citation: Yang C, Crane HM, Cropsey K, Hutton H, Chander G, et al. (2016) Implementation of Computer-delivered Brief Alcohol Intervention in HIV Clinical Settings: Who Agrees to Participate?. J Addict Res Ther 7:276. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000276

Copyright: © 2016 Yang C, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: Addressing alcohol use in primary HIV settings can improve medical outcomes and overall quality of life of persons living with HIV (PLWH). In order to assess the feasibility of computer-delivered brief alcohol intervention (CBI) and to inform future efforts to improve access to CBI, we examined patient-level sociodemographic, clinical and behavioral characteristics associated with agreement to participate in CBI among nontreatment seeking PLWH with alcohol misuse.
Methods: Participants were recruited from two Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR) Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS) HIV clinics. PLWH completed a clinical assessment of patient-reported measures and outcomes using tablet-based assessments, including socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics. HIV biological indicators, i.e., CD4 count and viral load, were also available from the electronic medical record. Participants were approached for CBI participation based on scores on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT); no incentives were offered for CBI participation. We performed chi-square tests, analysis of variance and multivariate logistic regression to compare socio-demographic, behavioral and clinical factors among participants who agreed to participate compared with those who refused/postponed participation.
Results: We observed that 42% of non-treatment seeking, non-incentivized PLWH with alcohol misuse provided written agreement to participate in on-site CBI delivered in their HIV primary care clinic. A larger proportion of PLWH who agreed to enroll in CBI had detectable viral loads, heavier weekly alcohol use, and higher DSM-5 alcohol use disorder symptom counts and mental health symptoms. Neither socio-demographic background nor drug use status was associated with CBI enrollment.
Conclusion: CBI implementation reached those patients most in need of care. The findings of this study may assist HIV-care providers to better identify appropriate patients and initiate discussions to facilitate the participation of PLWH in alcohol intervention services.

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