Current calls for primary care‐based screening and brief interventions for alcohol use should be reviewed
Alcohol continues to contribute to significant morbidity and mortality in the Australian community. It is responsible for 4.5% of total disease burden,1 and 4186 deaths in 20172 and over 144 000 hospitalisations per year.3 While levels of alcohol consumption are slowly declining, alcohol continues to be a major preventable contributor to disease and death among Australians.
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- 12. Frost M, Glass J, Bradley K, et al. Documented brief intervention associated with reduced linkage to specialty addiction treatment in a national sample of VA patients with unhealthy alcohol use with and without alcohol use disorders. Addiction 2019; 115: 668–678.
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