Young People's Health Assessment as Treatment and Health Guide

Background: Excessive alcohol and other substance use in adolescence is prevalent and has developmental consequences that extend into adulthood. In parallel with other public health and clinical measures, early identification in primary care represents an important step to address this problem. Screening and brief intervention by primary care physicians is recommended but often fails to be implemented due to time constraints and other barriers. Working hypothesis: Recent evidence suggests that simply asking individuals about their substance use may in itself encourage behaviour change, regardless of the clinical intervention that may follow. This hypothesis has not as yet been tested in a population of young people consulting in primary care. The investigators hypothesise that inviting young people to complete a brief substance use screening questionnaire in the waiting room before their primary care consultation has the potential to lead to a decrease in substance use in the months following this consultation. Specific aims: The aim of this pilot project is to develop and test the methods for a future randomized trial. The future trial will assess the effectiveness of pre-consultation substance use screening, compared to screening for other behaviors, on subsequent substance use in young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years consulting primary care physicians. Expected value of the proposed project: The clinical context of primary care has the potential to trigger behavior change in young people, thus favoring improved adult outcomes in this population. If effective, pre-consultation substance use screening could contribute to a reduction in excessive substance use among young people in a simple and cost-effective way. This pilot study will provide precious feasibility data for the design of the related cluster randomised trial.