Alcohol-related activities in primary health care

Background: Brief alcohol intervention (BI) is recommended for use in health care. However, too little is known about its use in everyday work. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the activity of asking patients about alcohol use, offering them BI, and documenting these issues in physicians' and nurses' consultations as a part of everyday primary health care (PHC) work. Methods: All PHC workers (n = 104) of seven health care centers were asked to report information on 30 consecutive adult patients. Altogether, 78 PHC workers (75.0%) participated in this study and reported information on 2,047 patients. Results: A total of 1,112 (56.4%) patients had been asked about alcohol use at some point. According to the PHC workers, 115 (10.4%) of the patients who had been asked about alcohol use were risky drinkers. BI was offered to 103 (89.6%) risky drinkers. Alcohol-related documentation was found in 452 (42.0%) of the records of patients who had been asked about alcohol use. Discussion: The BI activity of PHC professionals is high if the patient is considered a risky drinker. However, the overall incidence of inquiry could be increased and alcohol-related documentation still remains low.