ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03610815Updated Oct 6, 2025

Community I-STAR Mozambique: Community Implementation of SBIRT Using Technology for Alcohol Use Reduction in Mozambique

A Phase 4 interventional study of Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment in mSBIRT - Mobile Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment and SBIRT-CTS - Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment Conventional Training and Supervision Strategy, sponsored by New York State Psychiatric Institute. Completed at 1 site in Mozambique. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-10-06.

Sponsored by New York State Psychiatric Institute · Phase 4, Interventional, and Health services research

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
540
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Hazardous drinking (HD) is a major public health burden worldwide with significant morbidity and mortality. To reduce HD, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends using Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (SBIRT). Mobile health technology (mHealth), such as the mSBIRT app, is a promising tool for widespread cost-effective delivery of evidence-based HDS by community health workers (CHWs) because of its potential to increase fidelity, effectiveness, and sustainability. Community I-STAR Mozambique comprises three phases: 1) mSBIRT adaptation, 2) a cluster-randomized trial, and 3) scale-up of the most cost-effective intervention. Community I-STAR Mozambique will scale-up a cost effective, sustainable program and inform policy applicable to Mozambique and other LMICs.

Read the detailed description

Hazardous drinking (HD) is a major public health burden worldwide with significant morbidity and mortality. The prevention and treatment gap associated with this global burden requires that efficacious interventions be scaled-up, leveraging existing platforms and participation of policy makers ready to apply and sustain evidence-informed policies over time. To reduce HD, the WHO recommends using Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) and the mental health Gap Action Programme guidelines (mhGAP). As low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) embrace SBIRT and mhGAP for community based HD services (HDS), a main scale-up challenge is ensuring effectiveness, fidelity, and sustainability of services. Mobile health technology (mHealth), such as the mSBIRT app, is a promising tool for widespread cost-effective delivery of evidence-based HDS by community health workers (CHWs) because of its potential to increase fidelity, effectiveness, and sustainability. The proposed project, Community I-STAR (Implementation of SBIRT using Technology for Alcohol use Reduction) Mozambique, will leverage the following existing Mozambique Ministry of Health (MoH) programs: (1) a task-shifting strategy training psychiatric technicians (PsyTs) to use the mhGAP; (2) the WHO-funded epilepsy community program delivered by CHWs; and (3) an mHealth program for malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea (inSCALE - Innovations at Scale for Community Access and Lasting Effects). These currently operating programs set the stage for the use of mSBIRT by CHWs to deliver community HDS in Mozambique and generate policy for scale-up of government-funded community HDS harnessing existing human resources. Community I-STAR Mozambique comprises three phases: 1) mSBIRT adaptation, 2) a cluster-randomized trial, and 3) scale-up of the most cost-effective intervention. A formative phase to adapt mSBIRT to Mozambique's context/culture, will be followed by a 2-year, cluster-randomized, hybrid effectiveness-implementation type 2 trial in 12 districts: 6 districts randomized to receive mSBIRT and 6 to an SBIRT Conventional Training and Supervision strategy (SBIRT-CTS), with both arms delivered by CHWs. The arm showing higher cost-effectiveness in the 2-year trial will be scaled up to the other 6 districts for 12 "cross-over" months. Throughout the trial and the "cross-over" scale-up, qualitative and process data will complement quantitative assessments to examine implementation, sustainability, and scale-up. This approach redefines work roles without requiring new human resources, and it comports with the MoH's commitment to implementing HDS. Evidence-based practices (SBIRT) will a) build capacity for complete task-shifting of sustainable community-HDS practices; and b) use implementation tools to examine implementation and effectiveness of two SBIRT delivery strategies followed by evaluation of scale-up of the most cost-effective strategy. Community I-STAR Mozambique will scale-up a cost effective, sustainable program and inform policy applicable to Mozambique and other LMICs.

02

Conditions studied

  • mSBIRT - Mobile Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment
  • SBIRT-CTS - Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment Conventional Training and Supervision Strategy

Keywords

  • Alcohol
  • SBIRT
  • Mobile Technology
  • Implementation Science
  • Dissemination Research
  • Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Design
03

In context

Lead sponsor

New York State Psychiatric Institute is the lead sponsor of 435 studies on the registry; 27 are open to participants now.

Of its 51 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 45 (88%) have results posted.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Community Health Workers working in the randomized clinics, Portuguese speakers

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Other clinic staff from this clinics or other clinics
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Health services research
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Investigator)
Enrollment
540 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    mSBIRT

    Mobile Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (mSBIRT)

    Behavioral: Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment

  • Active comparator
    SBIRT-CTS),

    Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment Conventional Training and Supervision strategy

    Behavioral: Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment

Interventions

  • BehavioralScreening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment

    Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment

    Also known as: Motivational Interviewing

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Implementation - Reach

    Number of individual who access care from among those who need care

    Time frame: From baseline to 6 months

  2. Clinical Effectiveness - AUDIT

    Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test

    Time frame: From baseline to 6 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Cost of Implementing New Strategies (COINS)

    Measures cost of implementing interventions

    Time frame: through study completion, an average of 2 years

07

Study locations

1 site
  • MIHER: Mozambique Institute for Health Education and Research
    Maputo, Cidade de Maputo 1101, Mozambique
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Morgenstern J, Irwin TW, Wainberg ML, Parsons JT, Muench F, Bux DA Jr, Kahler CW, Marcus S, Schulz-Heik J. A randomized controlled trial of goal choice interventions for alcohol use disorders among men who have sex with men. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2007 Feb;75(1):72-84. doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.75.1.72. PubMed 17295566 ↗
  • Irwin TW, Morgenstern J, Parsons JT, Wainberg M, Labouvie E. Alcohol and sexual HIV risk behavior among problem drinking men who have sex with men: An event level analysis of timeline followback data. AIDS Behav. 2006 May;10(3):299-307. doi: 10.1007/s10461-005-9045-7. PubMed 16482407 ↗
  • Elliott JC, Aharonovich E, O'Leary A, Wainberg M, Hasin DS. Drinking motives as prospective predictors of outcome in an intervention trial with heavily drinking HIV patients. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2014 Jan 1;134:290-295. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.10.026. Epub 2013 Nov 5. PubMed 24286967 ↗
  • Elliott JC, Aharonovich E, O'Leary A, Wainberg M, Hasin DS. Drinking motives among HIV primary care patients. AIDS Behav. 2014 Jul;18(7):1315-23. doi: 10.1007/s10461-013-0644-4. PubMed 24165984 ↗
  • Hasin DS, Aharonovich E, O'Leary A, Greenstein E, Pavlicova M, Arunajadai S, Waxman R, Wainberg M, Helzer J, Johnston B. Reducing heavy drinking in HIV primary care: a randomized trial of brief intervention, with and without technological enhancement. Addiction. 2013 Jul;108(7):1230-40. doi: 10.1111/add.12127. Epub 2013 Apr 17. PubMed 23432593 ↗
  • Aharonovich E, Hatzenbuehler ML, Johnston B, O'Leary A, Morgenstern J, Wainberg ML, Yao P, Helzer JE, Hasin DS. A low-cost, sustainable intervention for drinking reduction in the HIV primary care setting. AIDS Care. 2006 Aug;18(6):561-8. doi: 10.1080/09540120500264134. PubMed 16831783 ↗
  • Oquendo MA, Duarte C, Gouveia L, Mari JJ, Mello MF, Audet CM, Pinsky I, Vermund SH, Mocumbi AO, Wainberg ML. Building capacity for global mental health research: challenges to balancing clinical and research training. Lancet Psychiatry. 2018 Aug;5(8):612-613. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30097-X. Epub 2018 Apr 5. No abstract available. PubMed 29628365 ↗
  • Suleman A, Mootz JJ, Feliciano P, Nicholson T, O'Grady MA, Wall M, Mandell DS, Stockton M, Teodoro E, Anube A, Novela A, Mocumbi AO, Gouveia L, Wainberg ML. Scale-Up Study Protocol of the Implementation of a Mobile Health SBIRT Approach for Alcohol Use Reduction in Mozambique. Psychiatr Serv. 2021 Oct 1;72(10):1199-1208. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.202000086. Epub 2021 Jun 15. PubMed 34126774 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — Investigators will use the Global Mental Health Program at Columbia University (GMHP@CU) to make data available requiring acknowledgement of the the source of data and anonymity of research participants. Public codebooks and analysis protocols will be available.

Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form, Clinical study report, Analytic code

Time frame: 3 years after study completion

Access criteria: Described above in the plan description

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from Oct 2021 to primary completion in Aug 2025, 46 months.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jun 24, 2018
First posted
Aug 1, 2018
StartActual
Oct 1, 2021
Primary completionActual
Aug 31, 2025
CompletionActual
Aug 31, 2025
Last update
Oct 6, 2025
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 6, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03610815
Responsible party
Milton L. Wainberg, MD (Research Scientist, New York State Psychiatric Institute) — Principal investigator
First posted
Aug 1, 2018
Start date
Oct 1, 2021
Primary completion
Aug 31, 2025
Completion
Aug 31, 2025
Last update
Oct 6, 2025

Study contacts

Milton L Wainberg, MD
principal investigator · New York State Psychiatric Institute

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Sep 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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