Screening for Alcohol Use and Brief Counseling of Adults — 13 States and the District of Columbia, 2017

The CDC recommends screening all adults for binge drinking with a single question and recommending reduction to those who screen positive. James W. Mold, MD, MPH

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What is already known about this topic?

Binge drinking increases the risk for adverse health conditions and death. Alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI), recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for all adults in primary care, is effective in reducing binge drinking.

What is added by this report?

In 2017, 81% of survey respondents were asked by their health care provider about alcohol consumption and 38% about binge drinking at a checkup in the past 2 years. Among those asked about alcohol use and who reported current binge drinking, 80% received no advice to reduce their drinking.

What are the implications for public health practice?

Implementation of alcohol SBI as recommended by USPSTF, coupled with population-level evidence-based interventions, can reduce binge drinking among U.S. adults.

Author/s:

McKnight-Eily, LR, Okoro, CA, Turay, K, Acero, C, Hungerford, D

A meta-analysis of alcohol consumption and the risk of 15 diseases

Jeffrey Wilson — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 13:40:25 +0000

Date Added:

January 2, 2019

Journal/Publication:

Preventative Medicine

Publisher:

Elsevier

Publication Date:

May 1, 2004

Issue:

Volume:

Pages:

613-619

URL:

A meta-analysis of alcohol consumption and the risk of 15 diseases

Type:

Meta-analyses, Reviews, and Guidelines

Format:

Article

DOI (1):

10.1016/j.ypmed.2003.11.027

Keywords

alcohol

alcohol abuse

PMID (1):

15066364

MeSH

alcohol drinking

pancreatitis, chronic

This meta-analysis found strong dose response relationships between alcohol intake and cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, and larynx, as well as hypertension, liver cirrhosis, chronic pancreatitis, and injuries and violence. Note: Alcohol abuse is a fairly common cause of difficult to treat hypertension.

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BACKGROUND:

To compare the strength of evidence provided by the epidemiological literature on the association between alcohol consumption and the risk of 14 major alcohol-related neoplasms and non-neoplastic diseases, plus injuries.

METHODS:

A search of the epidemiological literature from 1966 to 1998 was performed by several bibliographic databases. Meta-regression models were fitted considering fixed and random effect models and linear and nonlinear effects of alcohol intake. The effects of some characteristics of the studies, including an index of their quality, were considered.

RESULTS:

Of the 561 initially reviewed studies, 156 were selected for meta-analysis because of their a priori defined higher quality, including a total of 116,702 subjects. Strong trends in risk were observed for cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus and larynx, hypertension, liver cirrhosis, chronic pancreatitis, and injuries and violence. Less strong direct relations were observed for cancers of the colon, rectum, liver, and breast. For all these conditions, significant increased risks were also found for ethanol intake of 25 g per day. Threshold values were observed for ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. For coronary heart disease, a J-shaped relation was observed with a minimum relative risk of 0.80 at 20 g/day, a significant protective effect up to 72 g/day, and a significant increased risk at 89 g/day. No clear relation was observed for gastroduodenal ulcer.

CONCLUSIONS:

This meta-analysis shows no evidence of a threshold effect for both neoplasms and several non-neoplastic diseases. J-shaped relations were observed only for coronary heart disease.

Author/s:

Corrao, Giovanni, Bagnardi, Vincenzo, Zombon, Antonella, La Cecchia, Carlo