Brief Interventions in Primary Care: An Evidence Overview of Practitioner and Digital Intervention Programmes
Open accessAbstract
PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: Excessive drinking is a major public health problem that adversely affects all parts of the population. Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have reported that brief interventions delivered in primary care are effective at reducing alcohol consumption, albeit with small effect sizes that have decreased over time. This review summarises the updated evidence base on practitioner and digitally delivered brief interventions. RECENT FINDINGS: Using Cochrane methodology, 69 primary care brief intervention trials (33,642 participants) and 57 digital intervention trials (34,390 participants) were identified. Meta-analyses showed both approaches significantly reduced consumption compared to controls. Five trials (390 participants) compared practitioner-delivered and digital interventions directly with no evidence of difference in outcomes at follow-up. SUMMARY: Brief interventions have the potential to impact at both individual and population levels. Future research should focus on optimising components and delivery mechanisms, and on alcohol-related harms. Digital interventions may overcome some of the implementation barriers faced by practitioner-delivered interventions.
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Meta-analytic evidence indicates that BIs are effective for treating harmful substance use.
“Most importantly, meta-analytic evidence indicates that BIs are effective for treating harmful substance use [14,20].”
From A scoping review of substance use brief interventions in Africa (2024) · cites this paper as [20]
The Evidence of Effectiveness section (page unavailable) reports meta-analytic evidence that brief alcohol interventions reduce alcohol consumption. The claim broadens this finding to harmful substance use generally; the cited evidence concerns alcohol, not other substances. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSystematic reviews have shown that preventive interventions in the primary care setting can be effective in changing patient behavior, including reducing alcohol consumption, increasing physical activity, smoking cessation, and weight loss.
“Systematic reviews have shown that preventive interventions in the primary care setting can be effective in changing patient behavior, including reducing alcohol consumption [17], increasing physical activity [18], smoking cessation [19], and weight loss [20].”
From Dementia Risk Reduction in Primary Care: A Scoping Review of Clinical Guidelines Using a Behavioral Specificity Framework (2022) · cites this paper as [17]
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- Authors
- Beyer, F., Lynch, E., & Kaner, E.
- Affiliations
- Newcastle University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Beyer, Fiona
- Venue
- Current Addiction Reports
- Published
- 2018-05-03
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 265-273
- ISSN
- 2196-2952 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5984646
- OpenAlex
- W2801307057
- Cited by
- 66
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 1.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Addiction Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity) (cc-by)
- Funders
- Newcastle University
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- brief intervention, excessive alcohol consumption, alcohol consumption reduction, primary care, digital interventions, alcohol-related harm, implementation barriers
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