Automated Telephone Follow-up in the Swedish Prison and Probation Services

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Affect; Alcohol Consumption; Substance Abuse
• Interventions: Behavioral: Brief feedback; Behavioral: Daily assessments

• Registration Number: NCT01727882
• Lead Sponsor: Region Skane

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether automated telephony may be used for daily assessments of paroled offenders, and whether a brief intervention based on these daily assessments may result in a more positive development compared to daily assessments only.

Detailed Description

To study whether automated telephony could be used in paroled offenders to perform daily assessment of variables associated with recidivism in crime and to study the effects of a brief intervention based on these assessments during 30 days following probation.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2009-12
• Primary Completion: 2010-09
• Study Completion: 2010-09
• Status Verified: 2012-11
• Study First Submitted: 2012-11-04
• Study First Submitted QC: 2012-11-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-11-12
• Study First Posted: 2012-11-16
• Last Update Posted: 2012-11-16

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 108

Inclusion Criteria

• Convicted criminals subject to parole
• Access to a mobile telephone
• Assigned parole officer at parole

Exclusion Criteria

• No knowledge of spoken Swedish
• Additional intervention such as intensive supervision with electronic monitoring, or in-patient care at a health and rehabilitation clinic

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Daily Assessments & Brief Feedback	Brief feedback	Daily assessments during 30 days after parole and a feedback intervention based on these daily assessments.
Daily Assessments & Brief Feedback	Daily assessments	Daily assessments during 30 days after parole and a feedback intervention based on these daily assessments.
Daily assessments	Daily assessments	Daily assessments during 30 days after parole.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Mental symptoms, SCL-8D	During 30 days after probation	Mental Symptoms, assessed with SCL-8D (Fink et al. A Nordic multicentre investigation. Part I: Method and prevalence of psychiatric morbidity. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 1995;92(6):409-418).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Stress	During 30 days after probation	Daily Assessment of Daily Experience (Stone AA, Neale JM. Development of a methodology for assessing daily experiences. In: Baum A, Singer J, eds. Advances in Environmental Psychology: Environment and Health. Vol 4. New York: Erlbaum; 1982:49-83).
Desire to use alcohol and drugs	During 30 days after probation	Desire to use alcohol and drugs (Bohn MJ, Krahn DD, Staehler BA. Development and initial validation of a measure of drinking urges in abstinent alcoholics. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 1995;19(3):600-606).
Current use of alcohol and drugs	During 30 days after probation	Current use was then assessed by simply asking whether the offender had drunk alcohol or used any drugs the previous day.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

The Swedish Prison and Probation Services, Region South and Region East; 🇸🇪 Norrköping, Sweden