Identifying Problem Drinkers

Nurses could help more than 300,000 people a year to reduce their alcohol intake to low-risk levels by asking simple questions and offering brief information and advice.

The Alcohol Needs Assessment Research Project found that primary care teams tend to under-identify alcohol use disorders, especially in younger patients. Teams recognised harmful drinking in just one in 80 patients, and dependent drinking in one in 28.

Simply asking patients how much they drink is not enough to detect harmful drinking. The World Health Organization developed the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), which has become the gold standard for identifying alcohol misuse. However, at 10 questions long, it can be time-consuming.

A one-question version - the Single Alcohol Screening Questionnaire - involves asking patients when they last drank eight units (for men) or six units (for women) of alcohol on one occasion. People who have done so in the past three months should be offered brief information and advice.

Research shows that when patients who are drinking at hazardous levels are given brief advice, one in eight will moderate their drinking to low-risk levels.