Knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices of primary health care professionals towards alcohol use: A national, cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Primary care (PC) professionals' knowledge about alcohol use has been identified as one of the barriers PC providers face in their clinic. Both PC professionals’ level of training and attitude are crucial in the clinical practice regarding alcohol use. Objective To evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices of Spanish PC physicians and nurses towards alcohol use. Design An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, multi-center study. Methodology Location: PC centers of the Spanish National Health System (NHS). Participants: PC physicians and nurses selected randomly from health care centers, and by sending an e-mail to semFYC and SEMERGEN members. Healthcare providers completed an online survey on knowledge, attitude, and follow-up recommendations for reducing alcohol intake. A descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analysis was conducted (p<0.05). Results Participants: 1,760 healthcare providers completed the survey (75.6% [95% CI 73.5–77.6] family physicians; 11.4% [95% CI 9.9–12.9] medical residents; and 12.5% [95% CI 10.9–14.1] nurses), with a mean age of 44.7 (SD 11.24, range: 26–64, 95% CI: 47.2–48.2). Knowledge was higher in family physicians (p<0.001), older professionals (Spearman's r = 0.11, p<0.001), and resident trainers (p<0.001). The PC professional most likely to provide advice for reducing alcohol use was: a nurse (p <0.001), female (p = 0.010), between 46 and 55 years old (p <0.001). Conclusions PC providers’ knowledge and preventive practices regarding alcohol use are scarce, hence specific training strategies to increase their knowledge and improve their attitude and skills with regard to this health problem should be considered a healthcare policy priority.

Working with alcohol prevention in occupational health services: “knowing how” is more important than “knowing that” – the WIRUS OHS study

“…In contrast to earlier studies implicating quite low levels of alcohol-related knowledge among health care personnel [ 49 – 54 ], OHS personnel in our study believed that they were quite knowledgeable about alcohol-related topics. Evidence of limited knowledge among health care personnel has been found regarding topics such as effects of alcohol consumption on health [ 52 ], prevalence of alcohol use and risky drinking [ 49 , 53 ], etiology of alcoholism [ 54 ], fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and maternal alcohol use [ 50 – 52 ], drinking limits, guidelines and how to advise patients about responsible drinking [ 55 , 56 ], how to screen for substance misuse [ 59 ], and effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions [ 53 , 54 ].…”

“…Health care personnel’s level of alcohol training has been found to predict the extent to which they actually treat individuals with alcohol-related problems [ 48 ]. Although results are somewhat inconsistent, studies suggest that health care personnel have quite a low level of alcohol-related knowledge [ 49 – 54 ]. Similar findings have been reported for students in health professions [ 55 , 56 ].…”

“…Similar findings have been reported for students in health professions [ 55 , 56 ]. Consequently, the importance of developing training strategies aimed at improving health care personnel’s alcohol-related knowledge has been emphasized [ 49 , 50 ].…”

Factors Related to Lacking Knowledge on the Recommended Daily Salt Intake among Medical Professionals in Mongolia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…However, our results show that midwives and nurses were significantly more likely to lack knowledge on the recommended daily salt intake than medical doctors were, although significant differences were not found between medical doctors and public health nurses. This finding is similar to that from a previous study that revealed health care professionals’ knowledge regarding alcohol consumption differed significantly depending on the type of occupation [ 16 ]. The reason significant differences were not found between medical doctors and public health nurses might be due to the small sample size of public health nurses or because the role of public health nurses is to give health guidance to the community; in addition, some of the nurses were not specialists in public health or cardiovascular internal medicine.…”

Training health providers to address unhealthy alcohol use in primary care: a cross-sectional, multicenter study

“…Similarly, it is observed that professionals with more training are more likely to counsel their patients to reduce or abstain from alcohol use, particularly in cases of pregnant women and motor vehicle drivers. Given the importance of this finding in the clinical setting, strengthening the training of health professionals in this area should be a priority [ 38 ], in order to improve levels of prevention and health promotion, especially in at-risk populations, such as adolescents [ 39 ], pregnant women [ 40 ], and those whose alcohol consumption may have repercussions on third parties, such as operators of machinery and motor vehicle drivers [ 41 ].…”