[The attitude of primary care physicians to patients with an excessive consumption of alcohol].

OBJECTIVES

To find the attitudes of primary care doctors to excess alcohol consumption and to establish the relationships of this with independent variables.

DESIGN

Observational, descriptive, crossover study.

SETTING

All the primary care doctors in our region.

PARTICIPANTS

486 doctors, excluding paediatricians.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

A closed, anonymous, self-administered survey, consisting of 12 social/demographic and work variables and a questionnaire on attitudes, evaluated by the Likert scale. 227 valid surveys were returned. a) Social/demographic and work variables: 67.6% were males between 36 and 45 years old. 64% had completed their degree course between 1976 and 1985. 55.3% worked in a mixed health centre, with 54.4% holding a permanent post. 61.4% worked in towns of < 20,000 inhabitants, with a case-load of > 40 patients per day (46.6%). b) Validation of the questionnaire on attitudes. 6 factors were found to explain 63% of total variability: factor 1, "interest in on-going training" (2.20); factor 2, "professional reticence" (3.71); factor 3, "job satisfaction" (3.07); factor 4, "legitimacy" (2.12); factor 5, "self-perception of skills" (2.24); factor 6, "self-perception of knowledge" (3.06). c) Associations: 1. The older the doctor, the less reticence in his/her work. 2. Interesting differences in attitudes to on-going training, legitimacy and skills between doctors in different health areas. 3. Those who finished their studies before 1970 were more resistant to on-going training; those who finished between 1971 and 1975, more indifferent to it.

CONCLUSIONS

The doctors surveyed saw themselves as having the legitimacy, sufficient skill and lack of reticence to carry out their work with over-users of alcohol. However they were dissatisfied with their insufficient knowledge and broadly wanted on-going training on this question.