REACH Project: Reducing Alcohol-related harm in General Practice

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Risky or excessive alcohol use; Public Health - Health service research

• Registration Number: ACTRN12622000959774
• Lead Sponsor: Monash University

Brief Summary

Alcohol is a major source of harm in the community. Primary care (including family doctor and general practice settings) can play a role in reducing harmful alcohol use. Research shows that when clinicians talk to their patients about alcohol use patients can reduce their weekly alcohol consumption. In the REACH project we worked with general practitioners (GPs), nurses and patients to design a new approach to delivering alcohol brief interventions, including new tools and resources to support GPs and nurses to ask more patients about their alcohol use. Feedback from GPs and nurses indicated that the resources were useful. We found some difficulties with embedding the resources into practice, mostly influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Primary Health Networks have an opportunity to facilitate practices to engage with patients about their alcohol use by providing high quality resources in the languages spoken by patients, work with practices to know more about the patient data they capture, and work with the whole practice, including doctors, nurses, and administrative staff to raise awareness of the resources available to them.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Results First Posted: 1900-01-01
• Study Completion: 2021-08-31
• Study Start: 2022-07-07
• Last Update Posted: 9 August 2022

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 5

Inclusion Criteria

General practices
- Operating in the Melbourne metropolitan regions in lower socio-economic status areas
- Using one of two patient information management systems that allow for collection/extraction of alcohol status and histories (Medical Director, Best Practice)
- At least one GP consents to participate in study

Patients
- At least one visit to practice within the last three months
- Over 18 years
- Able to give informed consent i.e. proficient in English and not of reduced capacity.

Exclusion Criteria

General practices
- Undergoing or planned major organisational change during intervention period

Study & Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The primary outcome is the change in the proportion of adult patients (aged >15 years) with completed alcohol histories in their electronic medical record[Baseline, 10 months post-intervention commencement]

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Implementation outcomes, informed by RE-AIM, include:<br><br>Acceptability to patients, clinicians, practice staff, and PHN staff.<br>Adoption within each practice and within the PHN processes.<br>Fidelity of intervention implementation via project timelines completed by the PHN, research team, and member-checked during provider interviews.<br>Sustainability as perceived by practice staff, clinicians, and PHN staff.<br><br>All data was collected using in-depth, individual, semi-structured interviews during intervention or post intervention (see timing below)[Baseline, During intervention (3-months, 6-months), 10 months post-intervention commencement]