A brief alcohol intervention during smoking cessation treatment in daily cigarette smokers: A pilot randomized controlled trial.

Alcohol use attenuates successful smoking cessation. We examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a brief alcohol intervention in smokers. In this two-arm, assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial, we randomized 100 daily smokers (82.0% male, mean age = 43.7 years) with past-year alcohol use in smoking cessation clinics. Both intervention (n = 51) and control (n = 49) groups received conventional smoking cessation treatment, the intervention group additionally received a brief alcohol intervention. Primary outcome was biochemically validated tobacco abstinence at 2 months. Secondary outcomes included Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores, self-reported past 7-day alcohol consumption in alcohol units, feasibility, and acceptability scores at 2 months. By intention-to-treat, the intervention group showed higher validated abstinence (11.8% vs. 10.2%, Risk Ratio = 1.15, 95%CI = 0.38-3.53), lower AUDIT score (5.3 vs. 6.5), and lower alcohol consumption (5.6 vs. 7.1) than the control group, but the differences were not significant. Overall, the feasibility was high (4.2/5.0), and the acceptability was modest (5.0/7.0). In all participants, reduction in smoking relapse risk due to alcohol use from baseline to 2-month follow-up was associated with higher biochemically validated abstinence (Adjusted odds ratio: 1.55, 95% CI = 1.05-2.28). Our brief alcohol intervention is feasible, acceptable, and potentially efficacious to promote tobacco abstinence and alcohol reduction.
Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval and informed consent: This study was approved by Institutional Review Board of The University of Hong Kong/Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster (reference number: UW 21–347). All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)