Improving Alcohol and Substance Use Care Access, Outcome, Equity During the Reproductive Years

Description

Risky alcohol and drug use are associated with severe, negative, and long-term health outcomes and disparities, including sexual and reproductive health (SRH), among reproductive aged people in the United States. High rates and sequelae of alcohol and drug use disproportionately experienced by structurally marginalized groups shape lifelong health inequities for people of racial/ethnic minority, living in poverty, and residing in under-resourced and under-served communities. Among populations at risk of pregnancy-related sequelae (predominantly those self-identifying as women and thus this study’s primary focus), harmful alcohol and substance use and alcohol use disorders (AUDs)/substance use disorders (SUDs) contribute to condom and contraceptive nonuse among those not intending pregnancy, sex while intoxicated, non-consensual sex, violence/rape, sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy, and maternal and infant morbidity and mortality.

Family planning (FP) clinics are uniquely well-suited but entirely untapped sites for implementing and scaling integrated alcohol/substance use services. Largely community-based health centers that are publicly funded and/or serve Medicaid enrollees, FP clinics are a trusted care source and primary access point for reproductive aged women, and a safety net for the most socially disadvantaged groups. Yet few, if any, studies have rigorously evaluated interventions or implementation strategies to accelerate the uptake of alcohol/substance services in FP contexts. In obstetrics and HIV, widespread adoption of evidence-based SBIRT (screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment) is precluded by multi-level barriers; data on specific challenges faced by FP providers are lacking. Virtually nothing is known about telemedicine, which has been rolled out for contraception and other routine visits during the pandemic, as a technological infrastructure for SBIRT. Whether and how the promising strategy of Implementation and Sustainment Facilitation (ISF) can bridge systems barriers and support scale up in FP settings is unknown.

The researchers of this study propose an explanatory, sequential, mixed methods study of alcohol and drug SBIRT in an expansive FP clinic network – a novel and highly impactful setting with a national reach of a diverse and largely structurally disadvantaged population of reproductive-aged women at greatest risk for AUDs/SUDs. The researchers will conduct a randomized Type 1 Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Trial within a large Northeastern regional affiliate and its four clinics of a national SRH care organization.

Results will inform an evidence-based, innovative, stakeholder-driven FP SBIRT model in response to the high-level calls for integrated women’s health care. With concrete guidance for scaling alcohol/ drug services in SRH settings nationally, findings will promote women’s health equity across the U.S.