Talking About Alcohol in Primary Care: Do Patients Find It Useful?

Alcohol screening and brief interventions in primary care are efficacious but not optimally delivered in clinical practice. To examine the prevalence and perceived usefulness of alcohol use discussions in primary care, researchers in Finland surveyed 1203 patients (representing a 60% response rate) of 14 general practitioners at 2 health centers. Upon leaving an appointment with their physicians, patients completed a questionnaire that assessed the occurrence, duration, content, and usefulness of an alcohol use discussion during their visits.

• Discussions with physicians about alcohol were rare (only 12% of patients reported having one), brief (89% were <5 minutes), and most often included inquiries about quantities consumed and information about alcohol's harms.
• A great majority of patients (81%) felt that the discussions were useful, a finding similar among both heavy drinkers (who were identified by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) and non-heavy drinkers.

Comments:

Alcohol use discussions are uncommon in primary care but apparently perceived as useful by a large proportion of patients (even after considering this study's limited survey response rate and the possible bias introduced by such selective discussion). These findings, if replicated in other countries, support efforts to improve implementation of alcohol discussions in primary care and assuage concerns that talking about alcohol engenders patient dissatisfaction with their physicians.

Jeffrey H. Samet, MD, MA, MPH

Reference:

Aalto M, Seppä K. Usefulness, length and content of alcohol-related discussions in primary health care: the exit poll survey. Alcohol Alcohol. 2004;39(6):532–535.