Background:
Veterans of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) are at increased risk for alcohol misuse, and innovative methods are needed to improve their access to alcohol screening and brief interventions (SBI). This study adapted an electronic SBI (e-SBI) website that was efficacious in college students for OEF/OIF Veterans and reports on findings from interviews with OEF/OIF Veterans about their impressions of the e-SBI.MethodOEF/OIF Veteran outpatients who drank >3 days in the past week were recruited from a VA Deployment Health Clinic waiting room. Veterans privately pretested the anonymous e-SBI, and then completed individual semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews. Veterans’ responses were analyzed using template analysis to explore domains identified a priori as well as emergent domains.
Results:
During interviews, all nine OEF/OIF Veterans (1 woman/8 men) indicated that they had received feedback for risky alcohol consumption. Participants generally liked the standard drinks image, alcohol-related caloric and monetary feedback and the website’s brevity and anonymity (a priori domains). OEF/OIF Veterans also experienced challenges with portions of the e-SBI assessment and viewed feedback regarding alcohol-risk and normative drinking as problematic but described potential benefits derived from the e-SBI (emergent domains). The most appealing e-SBIs would ensure anonymity and provide personalized, transparent feedback about alcohol-related risk, consideration of the context for drinking, strategies to reduce drinking, and additional resources for Veterans with more severe alcohol misuse.
Conclusions:
This qualitative exploratory study of 9 OEF/OIF Veterans suggests that e-SBIs may be an acceptable strategy for increasing OEF/OIF Veteran access to evidenced-based brief alcohol-related interventions.