Feasibility of Studying a Brief Intervention to Help Chinese Villagers with Problem Alcohol Use After an Earthquake

To evaluate the feasibility of conducting a study of structured brief intervention (BI) for reducing problem alcohol use among individuals who experienced earthquake.

Following the Wenchuan earthquake, 1336 clients from 18 local hospitals were invited to complete the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Of those, 239 individuals (AUDIT score of greater than or equal to 7) were included in the study. The participants from intervention village hospitals who were assigned to the BI group (n = 118) received a structured BI lasting 15-30 min plus general health education. The participants from the control village hospitals were assigned to the control group (n = 121) only received general health education. Baseline and post-intervention assessments at 12 weeks were conducted using the AUDIT, Substance Abuse Knowledge Scale (SAKS), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and General Well-being Schedule.

At 3 months follow-up, the BI group had reduced scores on AUDIT (F = 65.84; P < 0.001) and increased on SAKS (F = 44.45; P < 0.001), but the control group had increased scores on SAS (F = 10.76; P = 0.001) and SDS (F = 18.43; P < 0.001) compared with baseline. BI group showed more decreases for AUDIT scores (group × time effect, F = 34.8; P < 0.001), and had mores increases for SAKS scores (group × time effect, F = 15.7; P < 0.001) compared with control group.

The study demonstrated the feasibility of a study of BI in problem alcohol users who experienced traumatic events. Further research need to be done to test the effectiveness of BI over a longer period of time, and provide evidence in support of BI as an effective technique in China.