ArticleBMJ open2019
Completeness and validity of alcohol recording in general practice within the UK: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMJ open, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Social determinants of heat-related mortality in England: a time-stratified case-crossover study using primary care records.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Screening for Alcohol Use Disorder Among Hospitalised Patients: Learning from a Retrospective Cohort Study in Secondary Care.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
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- Recording of Alcohol Use Disorder in Electronic Health Records: Developing a Recommended Codelist for Research.Clinical epidemiology · 2024Article
- Multifaceted intervention to increase the delivery of alcohol brief interventions in primary care: a mixed-methods process analysis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Article
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- Alcohol use recording in adults with depression in English primary care: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System Inhibitors and Risk of Acute Pancreatitis: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Drug safety · 2022Article
- The role of organization of care in GPs' prevention practice.Primary health care research & development · 2021Article
- Does the Fast Alcohol Screening Test Accurately Distinguish Between Harmful and Severely Dependent Tiers of Alcohol Misuse?Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2021Article
- Using Electronic Medical Records to Identify Potentially Eligible Study Subjects for Lung Cancer Screening with Biomarkers.Cancers · 2021Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSince 2010 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended screening adults for excessive alcohol consumption to try and help prevent alcohol-use disorders. Little is known about the extent to which these recommendations are followed, and the resulting completeness and validity of alcohol-related data recording in primary care.
objectiveTo investigate the completeness and accuracy of recording of alcohol use within primary care records in the UK. DESIGN AND
settingCross-sectional study in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink.
participantsWe included all adult patients registered on 1 PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: We calculated prevalence of alcohol consumption recording overall and within patient groups. We then validated alcohol consumption data against recommended screening tools (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)) as the gold standard. We also calculated how prevalence of alcohol recording changed over the preceding decade.
resultsIn 2018, among 1.8 million registered adult patients, just over half (51.9%) had a record for a code related to alcohol in the previous 5 years. Recording of alcohol consumption was more common among women, older people, ex-smokers and those from more deprived areas, who were overweight/obese, or with comorbidities. A quarter of patients had units per week recorded in the last 5 years, but <10% had an AUDIT or Fast Alcohol Screening Test (FAST) alcohol screening test score. The recorded alcohol measures corresponded to results from gold standard AUDIT scores. The distribution of consumption among current drinkers was similar to the Health Survey for England.
conclusionsHalf of adults in UK primary care have no recorded alcohol consumption data. When consumption is recorded, we have demonstrated internal and external validity of the data, suggesting greater recording may help identify opportunities for interventions to reduce harms.
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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.