PATIENT FACTORS INFLUENCING VARIATION IN THE USE OF PREVENTIVE INTERVENTIONS FOR ALCOHOL-ABUSE BY PRIMARY-CARE PHYSICIANS

Objective: To identify patient factors associated with primary care ph ysicians asking about alcohol consumption, warning of harmful ethanol effects, and advising modification of alcohol use in their patients. M ethod: A cross-sectional design was used, with a probability sample of 1,333 adult family medicine patients, stratified by sex and racial/et hnic background, drawn from a university-based, family medicine clinic . Patients completed self-report screens for alcohol-related problems (including the CAGE) and questionnaires on their experiences with thei r primary care provider. Results: Over 64% of male and female patients indicated their physician had asked them at some time about their alc ohol consumption. Logistic regression models indicated that male patie nts were 1.5 times as likely to have been warned about alcohol and thr ee times as likely to have been told to stop or modify their consumpti on compared to female patients. Patients with lower educational attain ment were more likely to have been warned, while the likelihood of eve r being told to stop or modify consumption increased with age, These a ssociations were significant after controlling for patient race/ethnic ity, cigarette use and CAGE scores. Conclusions: Patient factors inclu ding sex, educational attainment, age, cigarette use and problem alcoh ol use appear to explain some of the variation in the use of preventiv e interventions for alcohol abuse by primary care providers. Yet, diff erent patient factors appear to be related to the use of different pre ventive interventions. The role of patient factors, and in particular sex of patient, in the use of preventive intervention strategies for a lcohol abuse by primary care physicians should be further explored.