Trial reportInternational journal of environmental research and public health2013
Screening and brief interventions for hazardous and harmful alcohol use among university students in South Africa: results from a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Treatment outcomes for substance use disorders across the African continent: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Health behaviour interventions to improve mental health outcomes for students in the university setting: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of health risk behaviours related to non-communicable diseases amongst South African university students: a systematic review.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2023Pooled it
- Psychosocial and pharmacologic interventions to reduce harmful alcohol use in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Patient-level interventions to reduce alcohol-related harms in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-summary.PLoS medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Primary-level worker interventions for the care of people living with mental disorders and distress in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Psychosocial interventions for reducing alcohol consumption in sub-Saharan African settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review of interventions for reducing heavy episodic drinking in sub-Saharan African settings.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- Effectiveness of nurse-practitioner-delivered brief motivational intervention for young adult alcohol and drug use in primary care in South Africa: a randomized clinical trial.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire)Trial
- The influence of parents' history of alcohol use on their university-going children's drinking habits: A comparative study of students' drinking habits.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2025Article
- Using the ADAPT guidance to culturally adapt a brief intervention to reduce alcohol use among injury patients in Tanzania.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Alcohol Consumption Among Persons Living with HIV: Perceptions, Messages and Interventions-A Qualitative Study at an HIV Treatment Clinic in South Western Uganda.AIDS and behavior · 2024Article
- Community-based models of care for adolescent and adult depression, suicidal behavior, anxiety, trauma, and substance use in Africa: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Prevalence and correlates of alcohol use and risky drinking among undergraduate students in Johannesburg, South Africa: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Closing the treatment gap for alcohol use disorders in low- and middle-income countries.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2023Review
- Digital Health Screening in People With HIV in Uganda to Increase Alcohol Use Reporting: Qualitative Study on the Development and Testing of the Self-administered Digital Screener for Health.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Gender and Context Matter: Behavioral and Structural Interventions for People Who Use Alcohol and Other Drugs in Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Health behavior interventions for university students measuring mental health outcomes: A scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The Extent of Alcohol-Related Problems Among College and University Students in Norway Prior to and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Substance use and its effect on antiretroviral treatment adherence among male fisherfolk living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.PloS one · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) for alcohol problems among university students in South Africa. The study design for this efficacy study is a randomized controlled trial with 6- and 12-month follow-ups to examine the effects of a brief alcohol intervention to reduce alcohol use by hazardous and harmful drinkers in a university setting. The unit of randomization is the individual university student identified as a hazardous or harmful drinker attending public recruitment venues in a university campus. University students were screened for alcohol problems, and those identified as hazardous or harmful drinkers were randomized into an experimental or control group. The experimental group received one brief counseling session on alcohol risk reduction, while the control group received a health education leaflet. Results indicate that of the 722 screened for alcohol and who agreed to participate in the trial 152 (21.1%) tested positive for the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) (score 8 or more). Among the 147 (96.7%) university students who also attended the 12-month follow-up session, the intervention effect on the AUDIT score was -1.5, which was statistically significant (P = 0.009). Further, the depression scores marginally significantly decreased over time across treatment groups, while other substance use (tobacco and cannabis use), self-rated health status and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) scores did not change over time across treatment groups. The study provides evidence of effective brief intervention by assistant nurses with hazardous and harmful drinkers in a university setting in South Africa. The short duration of the brief intervention makes it a realistic candidate for use in a university setting.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.