This study is designed to determine if Brief Intervention strategies (Brief Counseling and Simple Advice) are effective in preventing future injuries in adults who have experienced alcohol-related, non-traffic, unintentional injuries. Three subpopulations of unintentional injury include; burn victims; victims of drownings and falls; and pedestrians. The hypotheses are: 1) During the 12 months following hospitalization for an alcohol-related unintentional injury, across all three injury subsamples, there will be a significantly greater decrease in alcohol consumption in the Brief Counseling Group as compared to the Simple Advice Group and a significantly greater decrease in alcohol consumption in the Simple Advice Group as compared to the Control Group. 2) Comparing the incidence of all alcohol-related injuries between the 12 months preceding the focal injury and the 12 months following the injury, across all three injury subsamples, there will be a significantly greater decrease in the injuries in the Brief Counseling Group as compared to the Simple Advice Group and a significantly greater decrease in injuries in the Simple Advice Group as compared to the Control Group. Trauma services from two (2) regional Level I Trauma Centers will enroll a total of 350 subjects, with the expectation that 225 subjects will be retained across the 12 months of the research. Subjects 18 years and older who have experienced an alcohol-related non-traffic unintentional injury sufficient to require hospitalization will be entered. Severity of injury will be assessed using the Trauma Score, the Injury Severity Score, and a Burn Severity Score. Baseline blood alcohol levels and serum GTT will be obtained on all subjects upon admission to the Emergency Department. After random assignment to groups, all subject will be interviewed and will receive the appropriate intervention. Four weeks post discharge, experimental subjects will again experience the appropriate intervention in a face-to-face session. At 3, 6, and 12 months post discharge subjects will be contracted by phone and interviewed regarding health, drinking patterns, and injury events. A second GTT will be obtained at 12 months on all subjects, as will driving records and reports of hospital readmissions for new traumatic injuries. A two-between, one within Analysis of Variance will be conducted to test both hypotheses. Type of injury and type of treatment will be the between group factors and time since injury will be the repeated measures factor.
| Sommers, M S; Dyehouse, J M; Howe, S R et al. (2000) Validity of self-reported alcohol consumption in nondependent drinkers with unintentional injuries. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 24:1406-13 |
| Dyehouse, J M; Sommers, M S (1995) Brief intervention as an advanced practice strategy for seriously injured victims of multiple trauma. AACN Clin Issues 6:53-62 |
