Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
  • Listen to BJGP podcast
  • Subscribe BJGP on YouTube
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
British Journal of General Practice

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
Research

Comparison of brief interventions in primary care on smoking and excessive alcohol consumption: a population survey in England

Jamie Brown, Robert West, Colin Angus, Emma Beard, Alan Brennan, Colin Drummond, Matthew Hickman, John Holmes, Eileen Kaner and Susan Michie
British Journal of General Practice 2016; 66 (642): e1-e9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp16X683149
Jamie Brown
Health Behaviour Research Centre;
Roles: Senior research fellow
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Robert West
Health Behaviour Research Centre;
Roles: Professor of health psychology
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Colin Angus
School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield.
Roles: Research fellow
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Emma Beard
Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London.
Roles: Research associate
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Alan Brennan
School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield.
Roles: Professor of health economics and decision modelling
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Colin Drummond
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London.
Roles: Professor of addiction psychiatry
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Matthew Hickman
School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol.
Roles: Professor in public health and epidemiology
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
John Holmes
School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield.
Roles: Senior research fellow
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Eileen Kaner
Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Roles: Professor of public health & primary care research
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Susan Michie
Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London.
Roles: Professor of health psychology
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Background Brief interventions have a modest but meaningful effect on promoting smoking cessation and reducing excessive alcohol consumption. Guidelines recommend offering such advice opportunistically and regularly but incentives vary between the two behaviours.

Aim To use representative data from the perspective of patients to compare the prevalence and characteristics of people who smoke or drink excessively and who receive a brief intervention.

Design and setting Data was from a representative sample of 15 252 adults from household surveys in England.

Method Recall of brief interventions on smoking and alcohol use, sociodemographic information, and smoking and alcohol consumption patterns were assessed among smokers and those who drink excessively (AUDIT score of ≥8), who visited their GP surgery in the previous year.

Results Of 1775 smokers, 50.4% recalled receiving brief advice on smoking in the previous year. Smokers receiving advice compared with those who did not were more likely to be older (odds ratio [OR] 17-year increments 1.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.06 to 1.34), female (OR 1.35, 95% CI =1.10 to 1.65), have a disability (OR 1.44, 95% CI = 1.11 to 1.88), have made more quit attempts in the previous year (compared with no attempts: one attempt, OR 1.65, 95% CI = 1.32 to 2.08; ≥2 attempts, OR 2.02, 95% CI =1.49 to 2.74), and have greater nicotine dependence (OR 1.17, 95% CI =1.05 to 1.31) but were less likely to have no post-16 qualifications (OR 0.81, 95% CI = 0.66 to 1.00). Of 1110 people drinking excessively, 6.5% recalled receiving advice in their GP surgery on their alcohol consumption in the previous year. Those receiving advice compared with those who did not had higher AUDIT scores (OR 1.17, 95% CI =1.12 to 1.23) and were less likely to be female (OR 0.44, 95% CI = 0.23 to 0.87).

Conclusion Whereas approximately half of smokers in England visiting their GP in the past year report having received advice on cessation, <10% of those who drink excessively report having received advice on their alcohol consumption.

  • alcohol drinking
  • brief advice
  • brief intervention
  • counselling
  • smoking
  • Received February 3, 2015.
  • Revision requested March 23, 2015.
  • Accepted April 28, 2015.
  • © British Journal of General Practice 2016

This is an OpenAccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

View Full Text
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 66 (642)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 66, Issue 642
January 2016
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Comparison of brief interventions in primary care on smoking and excessive alcohol consumption: a population survey in England
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Comparison of brief interventions in primary care on smoking and excessive alcohol consumption: a population survey in England
Jamie Brown, Robert West, Colin Angus, Emma Beard, Alan Brennan, Colin Drummond, Matthew Hickman, John Holmes, Eileen Kaner, Susan Michie
British Journal of General Practice 2016; 66 (642): e1-e9. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp16X683149

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Comparison of brief interventions in primary care on smoking and excessive alcohol consumption: a population survey in England
Jamie Brown, Robert West, Colin Angus, Emma Beard, Alan Brennan, Colin Drummond, Matthew Hickman, John Holmes, Eileen Kaner, Susan Michie
British Journal of General Practice 2016; 66 (642): e1-e9. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp16X683149
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • INTRODUCTION
    • METHOD
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • Acknowledgments
    • Notes
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Keywords

  • alcohol drinking
  • brief advice
  • brief intervention
  • counselling
  • smoking

More in this TOC Section

  • Trends in the registration of anxiety in Belgian primary care from 2000 to 2021: a registry-based study
  • Characteristics of good home-based end-of-life care: analysis of 5-year data from a nationwide mortality follow-back survey in England
  • Effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of behaviour change tools used by family doctors: a global systematic review
Show more Research

Related Articles

Cited By...

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

BJGP Life

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7400
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2023 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242