Beneficial Effects of Brief Alcohol Interventions on Diet, Physical Activity and Body-Mass Index: Secondary Outcome Data from a Randomized Controlled Trial Among General Hospital Patients

Background: Co-occurrence of behavioral risk factors (BRFs) such as tobacco smoking, at-risk alcohol use, unhealthy diet, insufficient physical activity and/or overweight is crucial concerning overall morbidity and mortality risk and is highly prevalent among healthcare patients, e.g., 93% of general hospital patients with at-risk alcohol use also report at least one further BRF. This study aimed to investigate whether two types of brief intervention targeting alcohol use, i.e., behavior change counseling and individualized computer-generated feedback, that have been found to be effective concerning alcohol use reduction and general health measures, produced additional beneficial effects concerning healthy diet, physical activity, and body-mass index among general hospital patients over two years after hospitalization. Methods: The randomized controlled trial included 960 systematically identified hospitalized patients with at-risk alcohol use allocated to three groups: in-person counseling, computer-generated written feedback, and assessment only. Both alcohol interventions included contacts at baseline, month 1, and month 3. Latent growth models analyzed secondary intervention effects concerning self-reported vegetable/fruit intake, physical activity, and body-mass index over 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. Results: At month 24, body-mass index was less strongly increased after in-person counseling versus assessment only (p = 0.022, Cohen’s d = 0.77). Borderline significant effects indicated similar changes for computer-generated feedback (p = 0.050, d = 0.64) and for increased physical activity (pin-person = 0.052, d = 0.31). Conclusions: Brief alcohol interventions proactively delivered to general hospital patients admitted for any disease or injury also resulted in significant and borderline significant medium-sized effects concerning body-mass index. To achieve more comprehensive changes for the prevention of non-communicable diseases, individually tailored interventions targeting all co-occurring BRFs still seem to be required.