SBIRT AS A TOOL FOR PREVENTION AND REDUCING RISKY SUBSTANCE USE BEHAVIOURS AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE IN ZARIA, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT

Background: Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based practice that has been shown to reduce alcohol and drug use in healthcare settings, but there is a paucity of research on the effectiveness of SBIRT in a non-medical setting with populations referred majorly from the criminal justice system in low resource settings. These populations have high rates of substance use but have limited access to interventions.

Materials and Methods: A simple random sampling technique was used for this research, 75 participants were selected from a pool of 150 arrested users, referred from criminal justice organizations; the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Police and other security agencies. Using the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), the intervention assessed the risk level for illicit drug use by participants and provided those who were at low or medium risk with a brief intervention and referred those at high risk to intensive treatment. Readiness to Change Questionnaire (RCQ) was used to assess the level of motivation of participants. The intervention was given at baseline and 3 months following baseline intervention. Assessments were carried out at baseline and 6 months using interviews and records data from baseline and 6-months analyses to compared the differences. All analyses were set at 95% CI, p < 0.05, and were carried out by SPSS 22.0.

Results: We found that the risk of harmful use of cannabis, prescription opioids, and sedatives reduced significantly between baseline and 6-months so also were their Mean ASSIST scores. Furthermore, participants have a statistically significant better level of motivation to stop the use of cannabis, prescription opioids, and sedatives between baseline and 6-months. Although participants have reduced risks of harmful use of solvent, the differences between baseline and 6-months were not significant.

Conclusions: This study has illustrated that the use of screening and the administration of brief interventions for reducing the harmful risk and improving the level of motivation to stop substance use in a non-medical setting can be feasible and effective.