This R34 grant application responds to PAR-12-279's call for new and adapted alcohol interventions. We focus on a national priority, the prevention of drinking during pregnancy and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Prenatal alcohol use, a leading cause of preventable birth defects in the U.S., continues to be a public health problem. Delayed pregnancy recognition and stigmatization concerns related to disclosure of drinking hamper prevention efforts with pregnant women. Heavy drinking increases risk for unintended pregnancy and for prenatal drinking. Thus, high rates of heavy drinking and of unplanned pregnancies in women in the U.S. suggest the need for primary prevention with all women of childbearing age. Screening and brief intervention (SBI) reduces drinking but remains underutilized due to resource limitations in public health care. The impending implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in an economy with dwindling health care resources indicates an urgent need for low-cost tools for delivering SBI. We propose to study a recently piloted, self-administered, computerized tool for reducing prenatal drinking that adds novel components of drink size assessment and drink size feedback to traditional SBI. We will adapt this bilingual (English and Spanish) electronic SBI or e-SBI for use with non-pregnant women and conduct a small trial of its efficacy in a public health clinic. We will also study effects of drink size assessment by itself and if depression modifies e- SBI efficacy. Study findings will help design a larger trial of e-SBI's efficacy for reducing prenatal alcohol use. We will use an experimental design for the proposed small trial. We will randomly assign 150 women, who have not been pregnant in the past year and report drinking, to e-SBI or usual care. We will complete baseline, 3-month and 6-month follow-up assessments, and examine drinking and pregnancy as primary outcomes, and health risks, i.e., drug use, sweetened beverage and depression as secondary outcomes. Secondary outcome data allow us to examine e-SBI's potential negative effects and set our proposed study apart from prior e-SBI studies that did not examine possible SBI-related adverse outcomes, such as increased drug use. To address methodological limitations in prior research, we will incorporate drink size assessment to better measure drinking outcomes, minimize assessment reactivity for controls at baseline, and include a booster e-SBI at the 3-month follow up. This allows us to examine 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, ur study will 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 alcohl 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.

Public Health Relevance

Heavy drinking by women of childbearing age increases risk for unplanned pregnancy, for drinking during pregnancy, and for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in their infants. We will adapt an innovative, self- administered computerized screening and brief intervention for drinking during pregnancy for use with non- pregnant childbearing age women, and test its efficacy 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.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Planning Grant (R34)
Project #
5R34AA022697-03
Application #
9121374
Study Section
Neuroscience Review Subcommittee (AA)
Program Officer
Scott, Marcia S
Project Start
2014-09-01
Project End
2017-08-31
Budget Start
2016-09-01
Budget End
2017-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Public Health Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
128663390
City
Oakland
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94607