Towards Increased Alcohol Intervention Activity in Swedish Occupational Health Services

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the extent to which Swedish occupational physicians and nurses discuss alcohol issues with their patients, their reasons for and against addressing these issues, their amount of education in handling risky drinking, and factors that they believe could facilitate increased alcohol intervention activity in OHS. Methods: All Swedish physicians and nurses in OHS were surveyed with a postal questionnaire. The questionnaire was returned by 313 physicians (response rate 54%) and 759 nurses (response rate 69%). Results: As much as 70% of the physicians and 85% of the nurses reported that they "frequently" discussed alcohol problems with their patients. The majority of both physicians (81%) and nurses (69%) admitted participating in a maximum of a half-day training in handling risky drinking. Among the physicians, the most common reason for asking patients about their alcohol consumption was the clinical relevance (57%). Seventy-three per cent of the nurses initiated discussions about alcohol on the basis of questionnaire responses. Both the physicians (72%) and nurses (90%) said that the knowledge about counselling techniques to use when alcohol-related symptoms are evident was the most important facilitator to increased intervention activity. Conclusions: OHS professionals usually discuss alcohol-related issues with their patients. Nonetheless, they are interested in gaining further education and knowledge in this respect. The study results indicate that OHS is an important setting for alcohol prevention.

Health Professionals’ Alcohol-Related Professional Practices and the Relationship between Their Personal Alcohol Attitudes and Behavior and Professional Practices: A Systematic Review

“…, 0% coverage of patients) for each of the 5-As [40,42,43,46,48,49,52,53,54,56,60]. Between 2.4%–29.0% of health professionals never assessed by asking their patients about their alcohol use and between 13.0%–98.0% had never used a screening tool.…”

“…Health professionals may not use the 5-As behavioral counseling framework for a number of reasons, including: a lack of confidence [71], a lack of knowledge about alcohol use ( i.e. , what constitutes a unit) and related risk factors [57,71], a lack of time [52,65,72] and/or a lack of training and/or uncertainty about if and how they should raise the topic with their patients [65,72]. These factors may act as barriers to providing appropriate assistance to patients [73].…”

Brief alcohol intervention—where to from here? Challenges remain for research and practice

“…However, an important focus for future research is to investigate current BI activity and the potential for increased alcohol prevention in other settings and explore new organizational models that involve other professions and/or alternative ways of organizing work concerning BI and life‐style issues. Studies from Finland and Sweden [21–24] suggest that occupational and maternity health care may be opportune settings for delivering BI, as they serve many clients who belong to the age groups with high alcohol consumption. Primary health care reaches a significant proportion of the population in many countries, but these patients tend to be older and may drink less than the national average, particularly patients in many western countries with ageing populations.…”

Current practices and perceived implementation barriers for working with alcohol prevention in occupational health services: the WIRUS OHS study

“…Occupational health services (OHS) aim to protect and promote employees’ safety and health, as well as to improve the work environment and working conditions [1–3]. The majority of the population is employed and the majority of employees consume alcohol.…”

“…The majority of the population is employed and the majority of employees consume alcohol. Therefore, several researchers have argued that the OHS should be more actively involved in alcohol prevention targeting employees [1, 4–6]. It has proved feasible to conduct brief alcohol prevention programmes as an integrated part of regular health examinations routinely performed within the OHS [7, 8], and early identification and interventions targeting problem drinking may even be considered more appropriate in OHS as compared to specialised health care [9].…”