Brief Personalized Feedback Intervention for Hazardous Drinking in an HIV Clinic

The objective of the proposed research is test the feasibility of a brief computer-based personalized feedback intervention to reduce heavy alcohol use among HIV+ individuals. There is a critical need to develop accessible, empirically-supported, low-threshold interventions for HIV+ hazardous alcohol users. The proposed research will develop and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of a novel evidence- and computer-based Personalized Feedback Intervention (PFI) among HIV+ hazardous alcohol users in a high volume Houston HIV clinic. H1: The PFI group will show increases in self-efficacy, intention to reduce or quit drinking, and decreases in actual drinking, relative to the control group. H2: Reduced drinking will be associated with less risky sexual behavior, better antiretroviral therapy (ART) medication adherence, and improved HIV quality of life. H3: Changes in normative perceptions, alcohol use attitudes, self-efficacy for alcohol abstinence, intentions to use, alcohol outcome expectancies, and protective behavioral strategies will mediate intervention effects on drinking behavior. Even if the investigators do not find significant effects on our main outcomes, these will also serve as useful proximal dependent variables that will provide important information regarding the feasibility of this intervention approach in this population. H4: Intervention effects on drinking outcomes will be stronger for those who report drinking more for social and/or coping reasons.