Table 4.
Alcohol counselling by US medical students (1999-2003): self reports on relevance to intended practice, training, confidence, and frequency. Figures are numbers (percentages) of students
| Counselling question | First year | Orientation to wards | Final year | χ2 P (for time) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How relevant do you think talking to patients about alcohol will be in your intended practice? | ||||
| Total (all specialties): | ||||
| Not at all | 106 (6) | 56 (4) | 150 (12) | <0.002 |
| Somewhat | 734 (40) | 531 (35) | 563 (42) | |
| Highly | 970 (54) | 919 (61) | 606 (46) | |
| Primary care: | ||||
| Not at all | 36 (5) | 4 (1) | 5 (1) | <0.0001* |
| Somewhat | 279 (35) | 98 (23) | 160 (39) | |
| Highly | 476 (60) | 330 (76) | 241 (59) | |
| Non-primary care: | ||||
| Not at all | 56 (9) | 45 (6) | 154 (17) | 0.003* |
| Somewhat | 288 (44) | 325 (42) | 388 (44) | |
| Highly | 315 (48) | 397 (52) | 344 (39) | |
| How confident are you about talking to patients about alcohol?† | ||||
| Not at all | — | 63 (4) | 20 (1) | 0.001 |
| Somewhat | — | 806 (53) | 657 (48) | |
| Highly | — | 638 (42) | 686 (50) | |
| How much training have you had on talking to patients about alcohol?† | ||||
| None | — | 129 (9) | 26 (2) | 0.0003 |
| Some | — | 1087 (72) | 837 (63) | |
| Extensive | — | 294 (19) | 458 (35) | |
| With a typical general medicine patient, how often do you actually perform this activity?‡ | ||||
| Never/rarely | — | — | 110 (8) | — |
| Sometimes | — | — | 892 (64) | |
| Usually/always | — | — | 391 (28) | |
*In addition to significant χ2, proportion responding “highly” (v “less than highly”) followed significant quadratic trend over time.
†Queried during orientation to wards and during final year.
‡Queried only during final year.