Effectiveness of a nurse-led telephonic brief intervention to reduce risky alcohol use among women in primary care in Brazil: a randomized controlled trial

Despite the increase in alcohol use among women worldwide, evidence on scalable, gender-responsive interventions remains limited, particularly in primary-care settings. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a nurse-delivered, telephonic brief intervention (BI) for reducing risky and harmful alcohol use among women.

This randomized controlled trial included 151 women recruited from four primary-care facilities in São Paulo, Brazil, who scored 8-19 on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (IG), which received a nurse-delivered telephone BI, or a control group (CG), which received feedback only. The primary outcome was the change in AUDIT scores assessed longitudinally from baseline through 24 months of follow-up.