Junior doctors’ understanding of alcohol units remains poor

Abstract

Junior doctors' understanding of alcohol units remains poorA survey of 586 trainee doctors in Yorkshire was undertaken to ascertain current junior doctors' knowledge and understanding of alcohol units. Approximately 18% of trainees had no knowledge of alcohol units despite the fact that 82% believed they had a good knowledge. Once again, those who did not drink alcohol knew less about alcohol units than those who did. Little progress seems to have been made on this important subject since our previous survey 7 years ago. Further steps must be taken to ensure that junior doctors are taught about alcohol units during the course of their training so that they are able to counsel patients appropriately.

Could campaigns like Dry January do more harm than good?

“…Health professionals lack understanding about units. 5 Beyond the problems of misinterpreting the guidance, the advice depends on people keeping a tally of the number of units they consume; only 13% do this. 6 Dry January has the potential to compound this muddle.…”

Update on the management of alcohol use disorders

“…There appears to be a positive correlation between clinicians' personal alcohol consumption (Das 2009, 2014) and being more prepared to ask about, and manage, patients' alcohol problems. The same was found in those who engaged in more CPD about alcohol (Kaner 2001).…”

Impact of Personal Alcohol Consumption on Aspects of Medical Student Alcohol-Related Competencies

“…Being able to take an accurate history of patients' alcohol consumption, and reliably use validated tools (such as the AUDIT) has been described as a core competency for health professionals (Sinclair et al, 2012, NICE, 2011 , and requires a basic underpinning of alcohol health literacy to have the confidence to develop these competencies, yet this remain generally poor (Das et al, 2014, Sinclair and Searle, 2016, Butt et al, 2015. Work from New Zealand highlighted that medical students who drank alcohol and who spoke English as a first language performed significantly better in an alcohol competency test than students who did not (Cape et al, 2006).…”

“…To take an accurate alcohol history from patients, health professionals need to be able to correctly estimate the number of units in commonly consumed alcohol-containing drinks, based on local patterns of alcohol consumption. Doctors who have had training in alcohol use disorders have greater confidence identifying and managing patients (Kaner et al, 2001, GMC, 2018, and doctors and students who do not drink alcohol themselves may be less confident to ask and record alcohol use in patients (Das et al, 2014).…”

“…Despite the barriers to teaching and learning in this area being well-known for decades (Walsh, 1995), recent studies of medical students and doctors show that levels of alcohol related competencies remain low (Das et al, 2009, Das et al, 2014, Sinclair and Searle, 2016, Kahan et al, 2007.…”