Abstract
BackgroundGeneral Practitioners’ (GPs) readiness to implement screening and brief intervention (SBI) to treat patients with excessive alcohol consumption is low. Several studies identified crucial barriers such as insufficient financial reimbursement. In contrast to the barriers-account, we assume that low implementation readiness of GPs may be less attributed to external barriers but rather more so to inherent characteristics of SBI. To test our assumption, we conducted a vignette study assessing the GPs’ readiness to implement SBI in comparison to a pharmacological intervention also designed for the treatment of excessive drinkers in relation to standard or above-standard financial reimbursement. According to our hypothesis GPs should be less ready to implement SBI regardless of financial reimbursement.MethodsA convenience sample of GPs was recruited to answer the questionnaire. To assess the GPs’ implementation readiness a 4-item 6-point Likert scale was developed and pretested.ResultsOne hundred forty GPs completed the questionnaire. GPs were more ready to implement the pharmacological intervention than SBI, F(1,132) = 27.58, p < .001 (main effect).We found no effect for financial reimbursement, F(1,132) = 3.60, ns, and no interaction effect, F(1,132) = 2.20, ns.ConclusionsFurther research should investigate more thoroughly the crucial characteristics of SBI to initiate a modification process finally leading to more effective primary care dependency prevention.
Highlights
General Practitioners’ (GPs) readiness to implement screening and brief intervention (SBI) to treat patients with excessive alcohol consumption is low
To explain the GPs’ low readiness to implement SBI into routine care some crucial barriers, as for example insufficient financial reimbursement were identified by previous research
We showed for the first time that inherent characteristics of SBI had a more negative influence on the GPs’ readiness than financial reimbursement
Summary
General Practitioners’ (GPs) readiness to implement screening and brief intervention (SBI) to treat patients with excessive alcohol consumption is low. To identify barriers against implementation, several studies have been conducted [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] identifying a large number of barriers subsumed to categories including organizational factors (e.g. lack of financial incentives), staff factors (e.g. lack of knowledge), patient factors (e.g. negative reaction in terms of embarrassment or unease) [1], individual level factors (lack of education), or society-level factors (heterogeneous understanding of the alcohol problem) [13]. It can be interpreted as an indicator of the GPs’ uncertainty regarding what prevents them from implementing a well efficacious intervention
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