title: Alcohol prevention in Swedish occupational health care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Occupational health care (OHC) was part of the Swedish Risk Drinking Project, a government-supported continuing professional education (CPE) endeavour for health professionals, 2004-10.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate OHC professionals' perceived knowledge concerning patient counselling on alcohol, perceived efficiency in achieving patient changes, use of questionnaires and biomarkers, amount and content of their alcohol-related CPE, their reasons for participating in this CPE and improvements experienced in addressing alcohol issues in the last 3 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Baseline 2005 and follow-up 2008 data were collected by means of anonymous questionnaires to all physicians and nurses in OHC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Response rates ranged from 53 to 80%. The share of nurses and physicians who had taken part in ≥ 3 days training on risk drinking issues rose from 10 to 59% and from 7 to 59%, respectively. The OHC professionals' perceived knowledge and efficiency concerning lifestyle counselling improved from 2005 to 2008, considerably more so for alcohol than the other lifestyle issues. The most competent nurses and physicians were more likely to have participated in training lasting ≥ 3 days. The most competent nurses and physicians had become better at initiating conversations about alcohol and at informing, providing advice and discussing alcohol with their clients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were major improvements in the OHC professionals' perceived knowledge concerning alcohol counselling and efficiency in influencing patients' alcohol habits after participation in a comprehensive CPE project. Overall, the nurses achieved more improvements than the physicians.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, SE-58183 Linköping, Sweden. per.nilsen@liu.se
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nilsen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Holmqvist
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hermansson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000193:education*; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000379:methods; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden