A Multisite Initiative to Increase the Use of Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention Through Resident Training and Clinic Systems Changes.

Purpose: Screening and brief intervention (SBI) is a seldom-used evidence-based practice for reducing unhealthy alcohol use among primary care patients. This project assessed the effectiveness of a regional consortium's training efforts in increasing alcohol SBI.

Method: Investigators combined alcohol SBI residency training efforts with clinic SBI implementation processes and used chart reviews to assess impact on SBI rates in four residency clinics.

The perceptual threshold for overweight.

Normative, global overweight may play a prominent role in perpetuating the obesity epidemic via its contribution to weight-related norms that describe what is customary in a social environment. These weight-related norms include a perceptual standard determining where body weight shifts from normal to overweight. We introduce the construct of a perceptual threshold for overweight to identify this transition point.