Electronic interventions in primary care to address substance use: A systematic review

The present systematic review aims to identify electronic interventions for addressing substance use and understand their effectiveness in primary care settings. A systematic search was carried out in the Web of Science, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Cochrane Library. The search included the keywords “electronic intervention”, “substance use”, “primary care” and synonyms. To determine the quality and recommendation of the analyzed interventions, the efficacy results reported by the studies were considered, as well as the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) assessment and the GRADE Evidence Assessment. Twenty-one electronic interventions in Primary Care were identified: internet, mobile or tablet applications, text messages, emails, automated telephone calls, or electronic self-reports. These interventions had diverse components, incorporating theories that have proven effective in face-to-face interventions as their theoretical frameworks. Some of them were complementary to in-person treatment, while others replaced it. Six interventions (28.5 %) displayed high quality: HealthCall, AB-CASI, Quit Genius, eCHECKUP-TOGO, CBI, and TES. Another nine interventions (42.8 %) were found to have moderate-high quality: Alcohol y Salud, IVR-BI, Program of Wallace et al., Let’s Talk About Smoking, SMSalud, ESCAPE, AAC-ASPIRE, iQuit, and Programa VIH. One intervention (4.7 %) had moderate-low quality: Vive sin tabaco ¡Decídete! The remaining five interventions (23.8 %) were found to have very low quality: Connection to health, cSBI, Teen Well Check, the program of Helzer et al. (2008), and Down your drink. The programs with the highest recommendation for addressing alcohol-related issues are HealthCall and AB-CASI; for tobacco use, it is Quit Genius; for cannabis use, it is eCHECKUP-TOGO; for addressing both legal and illegal substances, it is CBI and TES. Finally, for specific illicit drug use, the only recommended program is CBI. This last intervention, CBI, is of the highest quality and, therefore, can be considered a model intervention for dissemination in the primary care setting.