EXAMINING PREDICTORS OF REDUCTION IN DRINKING RISK LEVEL AMONG SEVERE-RISK TRAUMA PATIENTS FOLLOWING A BRIEF COUNSELING INTERVENTION

The purpose of this study was to identify potential predictors of alcohol screening and brief intervention outcomes for severe-risk drinkers. Specifically, age, gender, race, blood alcohol level, counseling intervention type, type of injury, hazardous alcohol use, symptoms of alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use were examined to see whether the variables were able to predict reduction to low-risk levels among severe-risk participants. A total of 101 participants were included in this research study. The variables were collected at baseline via the screening process of the alcohol screening and brief intervention (ASBI) procedures. The AUDIT (Babor et al., 2001) instrument was utilized to gather the hazardous alcohol use, symptoms of alcohol dependence, and harmful alcohol use variables. The other variables were gathered from participant self- report. Two logistic regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data in SPSS. The analysis indicated that one variable was statistically significant, blood alcohol level. The odds ratio of .993 suggested that for every one unit increase in blood alcohol level, a severe-risk participant was .993 times as likely to reduce their drinking to low-risk at six- month follow-up. These findings show little support for the individual predictors examined within this analysis, which were all completed during the screening phase of the ASBI process. This lack of significance for individual predictors emphasizes the need for future research to examine the components of a successful brief counseling intervention