ArticleBMJ open2016
How Australian general practitioners engage in discussions about alcohol with their patients: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Stigmatism among physicians and nurses towards patients with alcohol use disorder: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2026Pooled it
- Physician Reluctance to Intervene in Addiction: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- Communication practices for delivering health behaviour change conversations in primary care: a systematic review and thematic synthesis.BMC family practice · 2019Pooled it
- Low rates of prescribing alcohol relapse prevention medicines in Australian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services.Drug and alcohol review · 2023Trial
- U.S. and Swedish primary care physicians' views on promoting healthy lifestyles: a qualitative study.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- GPs' experiences of phosphatidylethanol in treatment of hypertension: a qualitative study.BJGP open · 2023Article
- Strategies to support midlife women to reduce their alcohol consumption: an Australian study using human-centred design.Health promotion international · 2023Article
- The influence of electronic reminders on recording diagnoses in a primary health care emergency department: a register-based study in a Finnish town.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2021Article
- Alcohol and breast cancer risk: Middle-aged women's logic and recommendations for reducing consumption in Australia.PloS one · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThis study aimed to investigate factors that inhibit and facilitate discussion about alcohol between general practitioners (GPs) and patients.
designData analysis from a cross-sectional survey. SETTING AND
participants894 GP delegates of a national health seminar series held in five capital cities of Australia in 2014.
main outcome measuresLikelihood of routine alcohol enquiry; self-assessed confidence in assessing and managing alcohol issues in primary healthcare.
resultsMost GPs (87%) reported that they were likely to routinely ask patients about their alcohol consumption and had sufficient skills to manage alcohol issues (74%). Potential barriers to enquiring about alcohol included perceptions that patients are not always honest about alcohol intake (84%) and communication difficulties (44%). 'I usually ask about alcohol' was ranked by 36% as the number one presentation likely to prompt alcohol discussion. Altered liver function test results followed by suspected clinical depression were most frequently ranked in the top three presentations. Suspicious or frequent injuries, frequent requests for sickness certificates and long-term unemployment were ranked in the top three presentations by 20% or less. Confidence in managing alcohol issues independently predicted likelihood to 'routinely ask' about alcohol consumption. Lack of time emerged as the single most important barrier to routinely asking about alcohol. Lack of time was predicted by perceptions of competing health issues in patients, fear of eliciting negative responses and lower confidence in ability to manage alcohol-related issues.
conclusionsImproving GPs' confidence and ability to identify, assess and manage at-risk drinking through relevant education may facilitate greater uptake of alcohol-related enquiries in general practice settings. Routine establishment of brief alcohol assessments might improve confidence in managing alcohol issues, reduce the time burden in risk assessment, decrease potential stigma associated with raising alcohol issues and reduce the potential for negative responses from patients.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.