title: Readiness to Change Predicts Drinking: Findings from 12-Month Follow-Up of Alcohol Use Disorder Outpatients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test whether measures of readiness to change (RTC) re-assessed every 3 months had predictive value for change in alcohol use over 12 months in a sample of adult outpatients with alcohol use disorder (AUD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Of the case, 78 outpatients were followed monthly over one year and averaged 9.0 interviews each (total observations = 704). Alcohol abstinence days and heavy drinking days were assessed monthly using a 30-day timeline follow-back procedure. RTC was assessed using 3 'readiness rulers' (importance, readiness, and confidence to change, measured on a 0-10 visual analog scale). The effect of RTC on alcohol use over time was tested every 3 months using negative binomial generalized estimating equations (GEE), controlling for gender, age, baseline alcohol dependence severity and AUD treatment status (ongoing vs. ceased).
  
  
  RESULTS
  GEE models showed highly significant effects of readiness and confidence to change on respective alcohol outcomes. Effects of importance to change were weaker.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As hypothesized, higher RTC scores were associated with improved alcohol use outcomes in this longitudinal study. The strongest effects were for confidence to change. Finding significant predictive validity prospectively is consistent with a theoretical view of RTC as a dynamic construct. Further research might clarify how AUD treatment could actually elicit or increase RTC.
authors.affiliation: Alcohol Treatment Center, Department of Community Health and Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital, Avenue de Beaumont 21 bis, Batiment P2, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland jacques.gaume@chuv.ch.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gaume
authors.affiliation: Alcohol Treatment Center, Department of Community Health and Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital, Avenue de Beaumont 21 bis, Batiment P2, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bertholet
authors.affiliation: Alcohol Treatment Center, Department of Community Health and Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital, Avenue de Beaumont 21 bis, Batiment P2, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jean-Bernard
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Daeppen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors