Affect, Alcohol Consumption, Substance Abuse
Conditions
Keywords
Paroled offenders, Interactive Voice Response, Stress, Mental symptoms, Alcohol consumption, Substance use
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether automated telephony may be used for daily assessments of paroled offenders, and whether a brief intervention based on these daily assessments may result in a more positive development compared to daily assessments only.
Detailed description
To study whether automated telephony could be used in paroled offenders to perform daily assessment of variables associated with recidivism in crime and to study the effects of a brief intervention based on these assessments during 30 days following probation.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALBrief feedback
A brief feedback was given on the results of the daily assessments, including a recommendation to the paroled offender and a email report was sent to the probation officer.
BEHAVIORALDaily assessments
Daily assessment of stress, mental symptoms, alcohol and substance use during 30 consecutive days after parole.
Sponsors
Lund University
Malmö University
Region Skane
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Convicted criminals subject to parole * Access to a mobile telephone * Assigned parole officer at parole
Exclusion criteria
* No knowledge of spoken Swedish * Additional intervention such as intensive supervision with electronic monitoring, or in-patient care at a health and rehabilitation clinic
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mental symptoms, SCL-8D | During 30 days after probation | Mental Symptoms, assessed with SCL-8D (Fink et al. A Nordic multicentre investigation. Part I: Method and prevalence of psychiatric morbidity. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 1995;92(6):409-418). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Stress | During 30 days after probation | Stress assessed with the Arnetz and hasson stress questionnaire(Andersson C et al. Measurement properties of the Arnetz and Hasson stress questionnaire in Swedish university freshmen. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. 2009;37(3):273-279) |
| Desire to use alcohol and drugs | During 30 days after probation | Desire to use alcohol and drugs (Bohn MJ, Krahn DD, Staehler BA. Development and initial validation of a measure of drinking urges in abstinent alcoholics. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 1995;19(3):600-606). |
| Current use of alcohol and drugs | During 30 days after probation | Current use was then assessed by simply asking whether the offender had drunk alcohol or used any drugs the previous day. |
Countries
Sweden
Outcome results
None listed