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- Holmqvist, Marika, 1959-
(författare)
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Addressing Alcohol : Alcohol Prevention in Swedish Primary and Maternity Health Care and Occupational Health Services
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Alcohol consumption in Sweden has reached its highest levels of the past 100 years in the wake of the country’s entry into the European Union in 1995. Increased alcohol prevention efforts in Swedish health care settings have been given high priority by the authorities. The Swedish parliament’s national action plan up to 2010 emphasises that public health must be protected by achieving reductions in alcohol consumption and limiting the negative physical, psychological, and social effects of alcohol.This thesis aims to investigate various aspects related to the current alcoholpreventive activity in 2006 among health care professionals in three important health care settings: primary health care (PHC), occupational health services (OHS), and maternity health care (MHC). The thesis includes four studies based on a total population mail questionnaire survey.Results from the studies show that alcohol issues in both PHC and OHS were addressed less frequently than all other lifestyle issues, i.e. smoking, physical activity, overweight, and stress. Important barriers to alcohol-preventive activity in these settings were perceived lack of time, scepticism regarding the effectiveness of addressing the issue of alcohol, fear of potentially negative patient responses, uncertainty about how to ask, uncertainty about how to give advice regarding alcohol, and uncertainty concerning where to refer the patient.OHS professionals generally considered themselves more skilful than their PHC counterparts in achieving change in patients’ alcohol habits and more knowledgeable about providing advice to patients with risky alcohol consumption. The overall frequency of initiating discussions about alcohol with patients in PHC and OHS was positively associated with self-assessed skills, knowledge, and education for all professional categories.Slightly more than one-third of the MHC midwives used a questionnaire to assess the woman’s alcohol intake before the pregnancy; AUDIT was the most commonly used questionnaire. Their perceived knowledge concerning alcohol and pregnancy matters was generally high, but the midwives considered themselves less proficient at detecting pregnant women with risky alcohol consumption before the pregnancy.MHC midwives had participated in more continuing professional education in handling risky drinking than all other categories investigated. PHC nurses was the category that had the highest proportion of professionals who lacked education in handling risky drinking. Professionals in PHC, OHS, and MHC to a large extent believed that provision of more knowledge about counselling techniques to use when alcohol-related symptoms are evident could facilitate increased alcohol intervention activity.
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| 2. |
- Holmqvist, Marika, 1959-, et al.
(författare)
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Alcohol prevention activity in Swedish primary health care and occupational health services : Asking patients about their drinking
- 2008
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Ingår i: Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. ; 25:6, s. 489-504
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aims To investigate the alcohol preventive activity in Swedish Occupational health services (OHS) and Primary health care (PHC) in relation to education in handling risky drinking, perceived skills in achieving change in patients’ alcohol habits, and knowledge in alcohol issues among the physicians and nurses in these two settings. Design and Methods All Swedish physicians and nurses in OHS and PHC having the authority to issue prescriptions were surveyed with a postal questionnaire. The questionnaire was returned by 313 OHS physicians (response rate 54%), 759 OHS nurses (69%), 1821 PHC physicians (47%), and 3125 PHC nurses (55%). Regression analyses were used to assess the independent and interacting effects of skills, knowledge, education, sex, age, and years in practice, patient encounters per week, and location of unit. Results OHS professionals were more active in initiating discussions about alcohol with their patients than their colleagues in PHC. OHS professionals considered themselves more skilful and knowledgeable than PHC professionals. OHS nurses and PHC physicians were the professional categories that had received most education in handling risky drinking. Skills were positively associated with activity for all categories except OHS physicians. Knowledge and education were positively associated with activity for all categories except OHS nurses. Conclusions OHS professionals were more active than the PHC professionals in addressing alcohol issues with their patients. Education, knowledge, and skills were positively associated with activity for most professional categories in the two settings.
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| 3. |
- Holmqvist, Marika, 1959-, et al.
(författare)
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Asking patients about their drinking - A national survey among primary health care physicians and nurses in Sweden
- 2008
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Ingår i: Addictive Behaviors. - : Elsevier BV. - 0306-4603. ; 33:2, s. 301-314
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 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). Results Fifty percent of the GPs and 28% of the nurses stated that they “frequently” discussed alcohol with their patients. The two most common reasons for asking patients about their drinking were that the GPs and nurses considered it part of their routines and the belief that the patient had alcohol-related symptoms. GPs said that improved opportunities for referral to specialists and provision of more knowledge about counselling techniques for use when alcohol-related symptoms are evident were the most important facilitators to increased intervention activity. Concerning the nurses, 93% stated that more time devoted to health-oriented work could facilitate increased alcohol intervention activity. Conclusions The findings highlight a considerable gap between the recognition of the significance of the alcohol problem and Swedish PHC intervention activity. Keywords: Primary health care; Alcohol intervention; Risk consumption
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| 5. |
- Nilsen, Per, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Alcohol use before and during pregnancy and factors influencing change among Swedish women
- 2008
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Ingår i: Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica. - : Wiley. - 0001-6349 .- 1600-0412. ; 87:7, s. 768-774
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective. To investigate alcohol intake during pregnancy among women, to assess health cares providers' advice to the women and the relative importance of different factors on changes in the women's drinking. Design. Questionnaire study. Setting. Linkoping, Sweden. Population. A total number of 1,533 women registered at a maternity health care center in Linkoping during a one-year period, from 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006. Methods. Mailed anonymous questionnaire with a response rate of 61%. Main outcome measures. Drinking behavior and information sources. Results. During pregnancy, 94% (n=869) of the responding women abstained from alcohol, including 13% (n=117) who were already abstainers. Six percent (n=55) continued drinking during the pregnancy. Those who continued drinking during pregnancy were older, had more often given birth and drank more frequently before pregnancy than the women who abstained. Half of the respondents (n=428) believed that decreases in alcohol intake during pregnancy reported in previous studies could be due to inaccurate self-reporting. The main message from maternity health care providers was perceived to be complete abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy (85%, n=777), although 8% (n=76) claimed that they had not received any advice regarding this. Media attention concerning risks associated with drinking during pregnancy was seen as slightly more important to achieve reduced alcohol intake during pregnancy than advice from maternity health care providers. Conclusions. A majority of women in this study reported abstaining from alcohol during pregnancy. © 2008 Informa UK Ltd. (Informa Healthcare, Taylor & Francis AS).
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| 7. |
- Nilsen, Per, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Linking drinking to injury--causal attribution of injury to alcohol intake among patients in a Swedish emergency room.
- 2007
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Ingår i: International journal of injury control and safety promotion. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1745-7300 .- 1745-7319. ; 14:2, s. 93-102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study analysed the drinking patterns and motivation to change drinking behaviours among injury patients who acknowledged alcohol as a factor in their injuries. A cross-sectional study was conducted over 18 months at a Swedish emergency department. A total of 1930 injury patients aged 18 - 70 years were enrolled in the study (76.8% completion rate). Of those who reported drinking, 10% acknowledged alcohol as a factor in their injury. A patient was more likely to report a causal attribution of the injury to alcohol the higher the weekly intake and the higher the frequency of heavy episodic drinking. The motivation to change variables showed a similar pattern of increased likelihood of attributing a causal link of alcohol and injury with increasing discontent with drinking behaviours and increasing desire to change drinking behaviours. The findings suggest that the ability to measure causal attribution of alcohol to injuries could be a promising tool to help patients explore the association between their injuries and alcohol use and motivate patients to modify drinking behaviours in order to avoid future injuries.
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