Detection and registration of alcohol use in the emergency department

Abstract

Background: Due to the high economic and morbimortality burden associated to alcohol use, in the last decades, public health services have developed several programs to detect and to intervene on at risk drinkers in primary care settings and emergency departments (ED). The aim of this study is to determine the proportion of detected and registered risky drinkers in an ED of Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. Methods: All patients over 18 years old, presenting to the ED and reporting risky drinking, were asked to participate. We did a descriptive analysis of the data after revising clinical records. Results: We detected 247 risky drinkers after assessing more than 2,047 patients with AUDIT-C scale. From these, 200 accepted to participate. Only 65 (32.5%) of these patients were properly detected and registered as risky drinkers, while the majority of them (122, 61%) had no record about their alcohol use in their clinical records. Conclusions: Risky drinkers are properly detected and registered in less than 35% of the patients. It is necessary to evaluate which barriers are restricting the implementation of screening programs to detect at risk drinkers.