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CompletedNCT01996280CTMIUpdated Apr 1, 2019

A Randomized Clinical Trial of Culturally Tailored MI

An interventional study of Motivational Interviewing and Culturally Tailored MI in Alcohol Drinking, sponsored by Northeastern University. Completed at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-04-01.

Sponsored by Northeastern University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
301
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

Culturally-tailored empirically-based interventions are needed because Latinos suffer a greater burden of alcohol-related health disparities and negative social consequences compared to other racial/ethnic groups, are less likely to initiate and to remain in treatment, and are more likely to live in communities with a high density of alcohol outlets. Pilot data from the PI's (New Investigator) K award (AA014905), which will serve as the basis for the current proposed larger-scale study, demonstrated that culturally tailored motivational interviewing (CTMI) outperformed motivational interviewing (MI) that was not tailored to the needs of Latino heavy drinkers. The public health impact of this study will be to develop a program of early screening and brief intervention to reduce hazardous drinking among Latinos, to minimize the burden of illness and social consequences that disproportionately affect Latino communities.

Read the detailed description

The proposed R01 research, in response to PA 10-100, "Alcohol Use Disorders: Treatment, Services Research, and Recovery", addresses the PA priority: Treatment for Health Disparities/Special Populations. Latinos, the largest and fastest growing ethnic group in the United States (U.S.), representing 14% of the population (1), are expected to grow to nearly 29% of the population by 2050 (2-3). Like many immigrant groups adapting to U.S. culture, Latinos adopt the health behaviors of the mainstream population, such as hazardous drinking (4-6). Hazardous drinking is a pattern of drinking associated with increased alcohol related problems: injuries, violence, sexually transmitted diseases (7-15), and increased risk for developing an alcohol use disorder (abuse or dependence) (7, 10, 16). Latinos report a disproportionately greater burden of illness, injuries, workplace and legal problems (17-21) as a result of their alcohol consumption than other racial ethnic groups, including an elevated risk for alcohol-involved motor vehicle crashes and fatalities (20, 22).

Early intervention prevents the need for more costly and complex alcohol treatment (23). According to the National Academy of Sciences, dissemination of empirically-based interventions that are culturally tailored is particularly needed among Latinos (23-24) because they suffer alcohol-related health disparities (18-20, 25-26) and because alcohol treatment utilization rates are lower among Latinos than among other minority racial/ethnic groups or Whites (27-29). Although evidence suggests that culturally tailored addiction treatment improves retention and treatment outcomes (30-31), progress in the field has been limited by the lack of prospective clinical trials comparing tailored to non-tailored treatment (23). The PI's (New Investigator) funded K award (AA014905) provided important pilot data demonstrating that culturally tailored motivational interviewing (CTMI) outperformed un-tailored motivational interviewing (MI). This study will be the basis for the current proposed study, which is a larger scale version of the pilot. The culturally tailored MI maintained MI components. The key modification in our Social Contextual Model of Cultural Tailoring was to tailor the MI to incorporate important acculturation stressors (32-33): limited financial resources and opportunities, loss of social networks, discrimination (34-38), and changing cultural values. The proposed study will investigate acculturation stress (39) as an influence on the relationship between acculturation and alcohol consumption behavior and treatment outcomes. Efforts will help build a comprehensive model of how acculturation stressors influence drinking behavior among Latinos (40). The CTMI is also a needed effort to tailor treatment to drinkers who experience the burden of multiple social contextual sources of disadvantage, including poverty, discrimination, and acculturation stress (40).

Because the original pilot study goal was to isolate and test the effects of tailoring treatment, it was delivered in English. The current proposal extends the tailored treatment to Spanish-speaking Latinos. Providing the tailored treatment in Spanish addresses a major clinical need and increases external generalizability. The study's public health impact will be to provide early screening and brief intervention to reduce hazardous drinking among Latinos in communities that lack such services. By providing early screening and intervention, we hope to minimize the burden of illness and social consequences that disproportionately affect Latino communities. Impact on field: will be to contribute to an understanding of whether culturally tailored motivational intervention enhances treatment efficacy for Latinos compared to un-tailored treatment. Another contribution will be to explore the effects of translating and of tailoring MI. Short term goals are to compare the efficacy of an evidenced-based treatment, MI, against a culturally adapted version of MI among Latinos. Long term goals are to disseminate an easily trainable, conceptual model of culturally tailored empirically-based substance abuse treatment, understand how acculturation processes confer risk for increased hazardous drinking among Latinos, and to inform further tailoring of treatments for multiple stressors, including acculturation stress.

Research Hypotheses:

Primary Aim 1: Treatment Main Effect. Determine the efficacy of standard motivational interviewing (MI) compared to culturally tailored MI (CTMI) at two, six, and twelve month follow-up. We hypothesize that CTMI participants will report fewer alcohol-related negative consequences and fewer heavy drinking days at follow-up vs. MI participants.

Primary Aim 2: Explore acculturation stress as a moderator of alcohol treatment outcomes for Latinos. We hypothesize that among participants with high acculturation stress, those in CTMI will improve more over time than those in MI (at 6 months). We also hypothesize that among those who receive CTMI, those with high acculturation stress may show greater improvement over time (at six months) than those with low acculturation stress.

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Conditions studied

  • Alcohol Drinking

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03

In context

Alcohol Drinking

925 studies on the registry are indexed under Alcohol Drinking; 172 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 301 is above the median of 108 across 802 interventional studies indexed under Alcohol Drinking.

Browse Alcohol Drinking studies →

Lead sponsor

Northeastern University is the lead sponsor of 55 studies on the registry; 21 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Meet criteria for hazardous drinking (greater than or equal to 5/4 per occasion for males/females), two or more times in the past 30 days.
  • Latino
  • Are not currently in any substance use treatment program for alcohol use disorder, nor have been in the past year.
  • 18-65 years old
  • Able to speak English or Spanish

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Psychotic symptoms, as evidenced by hallucinations or delusions.
  • Cognitive impairment, as evidenced by inability to understand informed consent. a. To determine comprehension, a research assistant will read informed consent aloud and will ask 3 questions

    1. Is the study voluntary
    2. Can he/she drop out at any time
    3. Will there be study follow-up.
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Participant)
Enrollment
301 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Placebo comparator
    Motivational Interviewing

    The MI is a single brief motivational intervention lasting 1.5 hours that includes MI structured strategies tailored to the patient's readiness to change such as: the Typical Day exercise, the use of personal feedback reports (e.g., normative feedback about their drinking), discussions about the pros and cons of use, and completion of a change plan. The MI is designed to follow MI principles of invoking autonomy and emphasizing collaboration with the interventionist.

    Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing

  • Experimental
    Culturally Tailored MI

    The CTMI is a single brief motivational interview lasting 1.5 hours. It follows the same sequence of structured strategies as the MI, but the focus of the components is different. CTMI has augmented some of the components with culturally relevant material, including discussion about acculturation stress. The CTMI components are culturally tailored to address relevant concerns and issues. There are also culturally tailored feedback elements in the CTMI, such as ethnic normative feedback about drinking. To control for time across conditions, interventionists are instructed to select CTMI components based on participant interests, not the entire array of components.

    Behavioral: Culturally Tailored MI

Interventions

  • BehavioralMotivational Interviewing

    The MI is a single brief motivational intervention lasting 1.5 hrs. The MI includes MI structured strategies tailored to the patient's readiness to change such as: the Typical Day exercise, the use of personal feedback reports (e.g., normative feedback about their drinking), discussions about the pros and cons of use, and completion of a change plan; It is designed to follow MI principles of invoking autonomy and emphasizing collaboration with the interventionist.

  • BehavioralCulturally Tailored MI

    CTMI is a single brief motivational intervention lasting 1.5hrs. The CTMI follows the same sequence of structured strategies as the MI arm, and while the components in CTMI and MI are parallel, the focus within them is different. CTMI components culturally relevant material, such as acculturation stress. The CTMI components, which are MI structured strategies, are culturally tailored to address relevant concerns and issues. There are also culturally tailored feedback element, such as ethnic normative feedback related to drinking.

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in Frequency of Heavy Drinking Days

    The frequency of heavy drinking days will be assessed using a 90 day Timeline Follow Back (TLFB) collected at baseline prior to study intervention. TLFB will be administered again at the 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow up periods. Changes in frequency of heavy drinking days will be assessed across all study time points.

    Time frame: Baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in Frequency of Alcohol-Related Negative Consequences

    Frequency of alcohol-related consequences will be assessed using the Drinker Inventory of Consequences (DrInC) and its' five subscales, as well as the Drinking and Driving Scale. The DrInC will be administered at baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow up whereas the Drinking and Driving scale will be administered at baseline and again at the 12-month follow up session. Changes in the frequency of reported negative alcohol-related consequences will be examined across these time points.

    Time frame: Baseline, 3-, 6-. 12-month follow up

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Study locations

2 sites
  • Northeastern University
    Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
  • South End Community Health Center
    Boston, Massachusetts 02118, United States
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References and documents

Publications

  • Lee CS, Colby SM, Rohsenow DJ, Martin R, Rosales R, McCallum TT, Falcon L, Almeida J, Cortes DE. A randomized controlled trial of motivational interviewing tailored for heavy drinking latinxs. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2019 Sep;87(9):815-830. doi: 10.1037/ccp0000428. PubMed 31403817 ↗
  • Lee CS, Almeida J, Colby SM, Tavares T, Rohsenow DJ. Acculturation, hazardous drinking and depressive symptomatology among Hispanics enrolled in a clinical trial. Addict Res Theory. 2016 Jan 1;24(1):69-79. doi: 10.3109/16066359.2015.1072517. Epub 2015 Jul 28. PubMed 26819573 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 1, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01996280
Lead sponsor
Northeastern University
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Nov 27, 2013
Start date
Aug 26, 2014
Primary completion
Oct 30, 2017
Completion
Nov 30, 2017
Last update
Apr 1, 2019

Study contacts

Christina S Lee, Ph.D
principal investigator · Northeastern University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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