Angus, C. orcid.org/0000-0003-0529-4135, Brown, J., Beard, E. et al. (5 more authors) (2019) Socioeconomic inequalities in the delivery of brief interventions for smoking and excessive drinking: findings from a cross-sectional household survey in England. BMJ Open, 9 (4). e023448. ISSN 2044-6055
Abstract
Objectives Brief Interventions [BI] for smoking and risky drinking are effective and cost-effective policy approaches to reducing alcohol harm currently used in primary care in England, however little is known about their contribution to health inequalities. This paper aims to investigate whether self-reported receipt of BI is associated with socioeconomic position and whether this differs for smoking or alcohol.
Design Population survey of 8,978 smokers or risky drinkers in England aged 16+ taking part in the Alcohol and Smoking Toolkit Studies
Measures Survey participants answered questions regarding whether they had received advice and support to cut down their drinking or smoking from a primary healthcare professional in the past 12 months as well as their socioeconomic position, demographic details, whether they smoke and their motivation to cut down their smoking and/or drinking. Respondents also completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Smokers were defined as those reporting any smoking in the past year. Risky drinkers were defined as those scoring 8 or more on the AUDIT.
Results After adjusting for demographic factors and patterns in smoking and drinking, BI delivery was highest in lower socioeconomic groups. Smokers in the lowest social grade had 30% (95% CI 5% to 61%) greater odds of reporting receipt of a BI than those in the highest grade. The relationship for risky drinking appeared stronger, with those in the lowest social grade having 111% (95% CI 27% to 252%) greater odds of reporting BI receipt than the highest grade. Rates of BI delivery were 8 times greater among smokers than risky drinkers (48.3% vs 6.1%).
Conclusions Current delivery of Brief Interventions for smoking and drinking in primary care in England may be contributing to a reduction in socioeconomic inequalities in health. This effect could be increased if intervention rates, particularly for drinking, were raised.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ALCOHOL RESEARCH UK UNSPECIFIED |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Apr 2019 11:41 |
Last Modified: | 03 Jun 2019 15:16 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMJ Journals |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023448 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:144853 |