Alcohol brief interventions improve drinking and blood pressure outcomes in patients with hypertension and unhealthy alcohol use

Hypertension is highly prevalent in primary care. Unhealthy alcohol use can affect its management and associated cardiovascular disease risks. Alcohol screening and brief intervention (ASBI) in primary care is effective for early intervention in unhealthy use, yet its effectiveness in heterogeneous populations in real-world settings remains unclear. Using electronic health records, researchers emulated a pragmatic clinical trial to evaluate the effects of receiving ASBI on drinking and blood pressure (BP) outcomes among primary care patients with hypertension and unhealthy alcohol use.
This observational study identified 72,979 patients with hypertension who screened positive for unhealthy drinking between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2017. A target trial framework was used to compare the effects of receiving ASBI (intervention) with not receiving a brief intervention (comparison) on drinking (change in heavy drinking days and drinks/week) and BP outcomes (changes in diastolic and systolic BP) from baseline to 2- and 5-year follow-ups. Treatment effect estimates were obtained using inverse probability-weighted models.
At two years, the intervention condition had about 0.2 fewer heavy drinking days and about 0.1 fewer drinks/week than the comparison condition. The intervention condition had an additional 0.5 mmHg and 0.7 mmHg decline in diastolic and systolic BP, respectively, and 8% and 6% higher odds of a ≥3 mmHg reduction in diastolic and systolic BP, respectively, than the comparison condition. Between-group differences in both outcomes diminished at five years.
The modest changes in drinking and BP found in the study contribute to the emerging evidence that brief intervention may benefit broader health outcomes at the population level.
Source: Sterling, S.A., Palzes, et al.W. (2026) Population-level evidence that alcohol brief interventions improve drinking and blood pressure outcomes in patients with hypertension and unhealthy alcohol use. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 87(1):64-74. .