Effectiveness of an E-Learning Training on Addressing Alcohol Use During Pregnancy

Understanding, Supporting, Motivating - Together for an Alcohol-Free Pregnancy

A major challenge in health care is equipping health professionals with skills to conduct sensitive conversations which is of importance in the treatment of patients suffering from stigmatized health behaviors such as addiction-related diseases. Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause adverse outcomes for the newborns. Therefore, sensitive conversations with pregnant women conducted by various health professionals who are in contact with them, is of importance. E-learning programs are a good option to teach health professionals with various background how to conduct sensitive conversations, using Motivational Interviewing.

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if the e-learning intervention can improve counseling about alcohol use in pregnancy in heathcare professionals like physicians, midwifes, social workers and others. The main questions it aims to answer is:

• Can the e-learning intervention lead to more conversations about alcohol use in pregnancy ? This is being operationalized as follows: Do health professionals address womens' alcohol use more frequently after completion of the e-learning?
• Does the e-learning additionally lead to higher values of the following variables (secondary outcomes): knowledge on alcohol use in pregnancy, communication skills, confidence, actual and desired conversation duration?

To evaluate these research questions, the study contains two groups: an intervention group receiving the intervention (getting access to the e-learning for four weeks), and a waitlist-control-group which first has a waiting period and later receives the intervention as an incentive. The study has two main measurement point: at baseline (prior to the intervention respectively the waiting period), and after the intervention respectively the waiting period. The waitlist-control group has an additional measurement point after completion of the e-learning.

The main hypothesis is that the intervention group shows a higher increase in the alcohol discussion proportion than the waitlist control group (using the measurement point before the e-learning). We therefore expect a significant group-time interaction in the planned repeated-measures ANOVAs for all variables.

Participants were asked to complete online questionnaires before assignment to the intervention or waitlist control group and after completing the intervention or the waiting period, respectively. Participants in the intervention group were asked to complete an approximately 8-hour e-learning intervention within four weeks, covering background knowledge on alcohol use during pregnancy and communication skills, including motivational interviewing, with interactive case-based exercises and two assessments. Participants in the waitlist control group received access to the e-learning intervention after a two-month waiting period.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being a physician (gynecologist or obstetrician), midwife, social worker or other health professional working in maternity care
• 18 years of age or older
• Sufficient German language skills
• Internet access

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not working in the before-named fields
• Younger than 18 years of age
• Insufficient German language skills
• No internet access