DescriptionSizeFormat
Publisher version (open access)278 KBAdobe Acrobat PDFView/Open

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/934381

Title
Can simply answering research questions change behaviour?: systematic review and meta analyses of brief alcohol intervention trials
Author/Creator
McCambridge, Jim;  Kypri, Kypros
Description
Background: Participant reports of their own behaviour are critical for the provision and evaluation of behavioural interventions. Recent developments in brief alcohol intervention trials provide an opportunity to evaluate longstanding concerns that answering questions on behaviour as part of research assessments may inadvertently influence it and produce bias. The study objective was to evaluate the size and nature of effects observed in randomized manipulations of the effects of answering questions on drinking behaviour in brief intervention trials. Methodology/Principal Findings: Multiple methods were used to identify primary studies. Between-group differences in total weekly alcohol consumption, quantity per drinking day and AUDIT scores were evaluated in random effects metaanalyses. Ten trials were included in this review, of which two did not provide findings for quantitative study, in which three outcomes were evaluated. Between-group differences were of the magnitude of 13.7 (20.17 to 27.6) grams of alcohol per week (approximately 1.5 U.K. units or 1 standard U.S. drink) and 1 point (0.1 to 1.9) in AUDIT score. There was no difference in quantity per drinking day. Conclusions/Significance: Answering questions on drinking in brief intervention trials appears to alter subsequent selfreported behaviour. This potentially generates bias by exposing non-intervention control groups to an integral component of the intervention. The effects of brief alcohol interventions may thus have been consistently under-estimated.
Relation
PLoS ONE Vol. 6, Issue 10
Publisher Link
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0023748
Date
2011
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Keyword(s)
alcohol intervention;  drinking behaviour;  behavioural research;  systematic review;  meta analyses
Resource Type
journal article
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/934381
Identifier
ISSN:1932-6203
Language
eng
Reviewed
Reviewed
 
Image Thumbnail
1 Visitors 6 Hits 1 Downloads
Save/E-mail Citation
Citation Format
E-mail Address
Subject
"PLoS ONE"
 
OR