Screening and Brief-Intervention of Post-war Alcohol Consumption in Public Hospital Outpatients

Background: High prevalence of alcohol-consumption among conflict-affected population has been reported in some low-and-middle income countries. However, studies that assess the effectiveness of screening and brief-intervention (SBI) in the reduction of unhealthy alcohol consumptions among conflict-affected hospital outpatients in Tigray are insufficient. Objective: This study aims to test the effectiveness of Screening and Brief-Intervention (SBI) in the reduction of unhealthy alcohol consumptions among conflict-affected hospital outpatients in Tigray. Method: About 1260 outpatients will be screened for alcohol consumption using Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). Those who will have "8-19" scores in the AUDIT will be allocated to "Intervention" and "Control" groups using block randomization and they will be followed at 6 and 12 months of follow - up. The Intervention group will receive simple advice, brief-counseling and 6-and 12-months follow-up screening of alcohol consumptions. However, outpatients in control group will only receive 6- and 12-months follow-up screening of alcohol consumptions. Data will be entered to and will be analyzed using SPSS V 26. Means, standard deviations and percentages will be used for descriptive statistics. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression, at 95% of confidence interval and p-value of \<0.05, will be used to identify correlates of alcohol consumption. Independent sample t-test and Mann-Whitney U test will be used to compare AUDIT mean scores of normally and none-normally distributed continuous variables between intervention and control groups respectively.