P112 Texting or talking? Which works better to reduce hazardous drinking by sexual health clinic attendees?

Abstract

BackgroundHazardous drinking is associated with an increased risk of catching an STI, getting pregnant unintentionally, being sexually assaulted and sexually assaulting someone else. An Alcohol Brief Intervention (ABI), a type of motivational interview, has been shown to reduce hazardous drinking in men over the age of 25. There is an paucity of evidence of the benefit in younger people or in women. Texting has been shown to be useful in supporting smoking cessation, weight reduction and diabetes control. There have been no studies of its potential value in reducing hazardous drinking or its consequences. AimTo compare the effect of texting vs an ABI on hazardous drinking and associated sexual illhealth amongst attendees at an urban sexual health clinic. MethodsPotential subjects are being recruited from a city sexual health clinic. Initial screening is done using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test - a self-completed questionnaire marked out of 40. Consenting subjects are then randomised to texting (12 texts over 4 months), an ABI or a leaflet and then followed up by phone at 4 months. At follow-up, subjects are rescreened for hazardous drinking and asked about incident STIs, regretted sex, sexual assault, use of emergency contraception and for their evaluation of the intervention method. ResultsTo end of January 2012, 6279 attendees have been screened of whom 2554 were hazardous drinkers and 799 have consented to take part in the study. (The target sample size is 1090). By the time of the conference, all subjects will have been recruited and most results will be available. ConclusionThis is the first RCT of texting for hazardous drinking and should inform national policy in this area.