Effects of using recommended coping strategies on drinking outcome following a brief intervention

Aims. To explore the unique contribution to outcome drinking of clients' us e of six strategies for moderating drinking, after statistically accounting for variance explained by some client and intervention variables. Design. An exploratory hierarchical regression analysis assessed the contributions to variance in drinking outcome of pre-intervention (client characteristics , baseline drinking), assignment (level of assessment, therapist experience ) and early follow-up variables. Data came from an experimental trial which evaluated the effect of adding assessment to provision of a self-help book to heavy drinkers. Setting Diverse Ontario communities. Participants. Heav y drinkers (99 males, 56 females) were selected from 185 media-recruited ap plicants who were screened by telephone to exclude cases with severe alcoho l-related problems. Their mean (+/- SD) pre-admission weekly quantity of al cohol consumed was 22 +/- 15 drinks. Follow-up rates at 3 and 12 months wer e 92% and 88%. Measurements. Regressed onto weekly quantity at follow-up we re: client characteristics, previous measures of weekly quantity, experimen tal condition and use of the menu of strategies (setting goals for drinking , keeping track of drinking, pacing drinking, planning ahead to avoid heavy drinking, developing free-time activities and coping with problems without drinking). Findings. At 3 months the variables predicting lower weekly qua ntity were: pre-intervention weekly quantity, developing free-time activiti es, setting goals for drinking and condition. Lower weekly quantity at 12 m onths was predicted by lower 3-month and pre-intervention weekly quantity, and regular use of: coping with problems without drinking, setting goals fo r drinking and keeping track of drinking. Conclusions. This descriptive stu dy revealed a positive association between level of use of recommended copi ng strategies at follow-up and drinking outcome. Controlled studies of the effects of strategy use on drinking outcome are therefore warranted.