Reviewing and interpreting the effects of brief alcohol interventions: comment on a Cochrane review about motivational interviewing for young adults.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cochrane recently published a systematic review on motivational interviewing (MI) for alcohol misuse in young adults. The review authors concluded that 'there are no substantive, meaningful benefits of MI interventions for the prevention of alcohol misuse' (p. 2), as effect sizes were 'small and unlikely to be of any meaningful benefit in practice' (p. 27). As most of these interventions were quite brief, we wish to open a dialogue about interpreting effect sizes in this review and of (brief) alcohol interventions more generally.

Analysis

We analyze four methodological aspects of the review that likely influenced the author's conclusions about intervention effects: (1) risk of bias assessments, (2) search strategies, (3) assessing the quality of the body of eviden

SUBMITTER: Grant S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5057341 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature