Clinical Trial: Healthy Living as You Age
Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Preventing Harm From Alcohol Use in Older Adults
Brief Summary: Older persons who drink can be vulnerable to negative consequences of drinking. This trial aims to prevent harm from alcohol use in older adults through a program of screening and brief advice followed up with several health education phone calls.
Detailed Summary:
Approximately 50% of persons aged 65 years and older drink alcohol. Older persons are particularly susceptible to adverse consequences of drinking such as falls, depression, sleep disorders, stomach upset, hypertension, and alcohol/drug interactions. This is because of age-related changes in the body that affect how older persons react to alcohol and also because of the age-associated increases in illness and medication use.
In the current project we aim to see if screening and brief advice given to older risky drinkers in a physician's office followed by up to 3 health education phone calls may reduce their risks associated with alcohol use. We plan to use a newly developed and tested measure, the Comorbidity Alcohol Risk Evaluation Tool (CARET), to screen for older persons (aged 55 and older) whose use of alcohol alone or in combination with their illnesses, symptoms, and medication use may be causing them harm, or increasing their risk for harm. Persons whose responses on the CARET indicate they might be risky drinkers will be randomized to receive either a brief intervention to reduce their risks or usual care.
The intervention will have the following components:
A) At the time of the recruitment visit, all intervention group patients will receive:
- A personalized risk report;
- An educational booklet titled "Healthy Drinking as You Age";
- A drinking diary;
- Brief advice to reduce their drinking by their physicians;
B) After the recruitment visit, all intervention group patients will receive up to 3 telephone calls from a hea
Sponsor: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Current Primary Outcome: Reducing at-risk drinking [ Time Frame: 12 month ]
Original Primary Outcome:
- Reducing at-risk drinking
- Reducing alcohol use
- Reducing the number of risks among those still considered at-risk drinkers.
Current Secondary Outcome:
- Reducing alcohol use [ Time Frame: 12 month ]
- Reducing the number of risks among those still considered at-risk drinkers. [ Time Frame: 12 month ]
Original Secondary Outcome:
Information By: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Dates:
Date Received: September 19, 2006
Date Started: August 2003
Date Completion:
Last Updated: July 10, 2009
Last Verified: July 2009
