Types and Effectiveness of Community-Based Cardiovascular Disease Preventive Interventions in Reducing Alcohol Consumption: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Neamin M Berhe; Hamid Y Hassen; Jean-Pierre Van Geertruyden; Rawlance Ndejjo; Geofrey Musinguzi; Hilde Bastiaens; Steven Abrams

doi:10.7759/cureus.61323

Types and Effectiveness of Community-Based Cardiovascular Disease Preventive Interventions in Reducing Alcohol Consumption: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Cureus. 2024 May 29;16(5):e61323. doi: 10.7759/cureus.61323. eCollection 2024 May.

Authors

Neamin M Berhe^{1

2}, Hamid Y Hassen¹, Jean-Pierre Van Geertruyden³, Rawlance Ndejjo⁴, Geofrey Musinguzi^{1

4}, Hilde Bastiaens^{1

3}, Steven Abrams^{3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Primary & Integrated Care, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, BEL.
² Department of Health Sciences, Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) Life Sciences, Mechelen, BEL.
³ Global Health Institute, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, BEL.
⁴ Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Makerere University, Kampala, UGA.
⁵ Data Science Institute, Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, BEL.

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) poses a global health challenge, with modifiable risk factors, notably alcohol consumption, impacting its onset and progression. This review synthesizes evidence on the types and effectiveness of community-based interventions (CBIs) aimed at reducing alcohol consumption for CVD prevention. Electronic databases were systematically searched until October 31, 2019, with updates until February 28, 2023. Given the heterogeneity in outcome measures, we narratively synthesized the effectiveness of CBIs, adhering to the synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) guidelines for transparent reporting. For selected homogenous studies, a random-effects meta-analysis was utilized to estimate the effects of CBIs on alcohol consumption. Twenty-two eligible studies were included, with 16 demonstrating that CBIs reduced alcohol consumption compared to controls. Meta-analysis findings revealed reductions in above moderate-level alcohol consumption (pooled odds ratio (OR)=0.50, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.37, 0.68), number of alcohol drinks per week (standardized mean difference=-0.08, 95% CI: -0.14, -0.03), and increased odds of low-risk drinking (pooled OR=1.99, 95% CI: 1.04, 3.81) compared to the control groups. Multi-component interventions (particularly those combining health education, awareness, and promotion activities) and those interventions with a duration of 12 months or more were notably effective. The beneficial effects of CBIs focusing on achieving a reduction in alcohol consumption showed promising outcomes. Implementing such interventions, especially multicomponent interventions, could play a significant role in mitigating the increasing burden of CVDs. Future studies should also consider employing standardized and validated tools to measure alcohol consumption outcomes to enhance the consistency and comparability of findings.

Keywords: alcohol consumption; cardiovascular disease; community-based intervention; effectiveness; prevention; systematic review and meta-analysis.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the SPICES project in Belgium, which received funding from the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation action grant agreement No. 733356. The funder had no role in the design, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.