Aims: The aims of this study were to analyse the perceptions of female and male primary care physicians (PCPs) of alcohol problems in male and female patients, their recommendations to reduce or abstain from alcohol, their referrals to treatment and their views of safe levels of drinking for male and female patients. These factors were related to the physicians' own alcohol consumption.
Methods: A slightly adjusted version of the WHO Collaborative Study Questionnaire for General Practitioners was posted to all PCPs (n = 132) in the district of Skaraborg, Sweden, of whom 68 PCPs responded.
Aims: To investigate the extent to which Swedish primary health care (PHC) general practitioners (GPs) and nurses discuss alcohol issues with their patients, their reasons for and against addressing alcohol issues, their perceived importance of these issues, and factors that could facilitate increased alcohol intervention activity among the PHC professionals.
Methods: All Swedish GPs and nurses who have the authority to issue prescriptions were surveyed with a postal questionnaire. The questionnaire was returned by 1821 GPs (47% response rate) and 3125 nurses (55% response rate).
Aims: To explore the attitudes of Swedish general practitioners (GPs) and nurses to secondary alcohol prevention (early identification of, and intervention for, alcohol-related problems) and compare it to their attitudes to other important lifestyle behaviours such as smoking, stress, exercise, and overweight.
Methods: An adjusted version of The WHO Collaborative Study Questionnaire for General Practitioners was posted to all GPs and nurses in the County of Skaraborg, Sweden; 68 GPs and 193 nurses responded.
Results: The importance of drinking alcohol moderately, counselling skills on reducing alcohol consumption and perceived current effectiveness in helping patients change lifestyle behaviours ranked lower than working with all the other lifestyle behaviours.