Risky drinkers and their physicians

Results Risky or harmful alcohol consumption was found in one in five Czech adults. 34% of respondents reported their doctor asked them about alcohol consumption and 8.6% received advice to reduce or stop drinking. This advice was more common for respondents over 45 years of age. In contrast with this only 22 respondents (1.2%) felt they would need professional help [1,2]. About one third of the sample of Czech GPs considered None or very low drinking as very important for good health. Greater importance doctors attributed to other risk behaviors. The study identified lack of time, lack of professional training and lack of funding for preventive activities as barriers to broader implementation of alcohol consumption screening and brief intervention (SBI). Only 8.5% of GPs reported they were very effective in influencing drinking habits among their patients. 32% subjectively believe their efficiency in this area would be increased with adequate specialized training [3].