Network of actors involved in the identification, care, and follow-up of unhealthy alcohol use in primary care in Colombia.

This article explores the structure of the network of actors involved in the care of individuals with unhealthy alcohol use (UAU) at the primary care level in five primary care centers in Colombia between 2017 and 2018. We use the Actor-Network Theory Framework (ANT) which posits that health outcomes are a product of a multitude of relationships between different stakeholders. The article focuses on the network configuration that develops between the actors and its effects on the processes of identification, care, and follow-up of people with UAU. The data come from five care centers that participated in the pilot phase of an implementation research project that seeks to apply evidence-based interventions for the detection and treatment of depression and unhealthy alcohol use. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups (FG) were conducted with patients, health and administrative staff, and users from Alcoholics Anonymous. The interviews were transcribed and coded using N-Vivo. The analysis identified the ways in which actors are linked by the community to UAU. The results of this qualitative approach based on ANT present the actors identified in a non-linear network with different dimensions.