Self-assessment of alcohol consumption as a health-education strategy in nursing students

Abstract

Background: In the field of preventive activities, early identification of excessive alcohol consumption is essential. The simplicity of existing instruments for detecting hazardous drinking makes for ready assimilation in university students.

Objective: To ascertain nursing students' level of knowledge about alcohol prevention activities and assess their skills, acquired through self-assessment of their own alcohol consumption, in managing tools designed to detect hazardous drinkers.

Design: Before and after intervention study.

Material and methods: We assessed 1060 nursing students and ascertained their level of knowledge about excessive alcohol consumption. Following an educational intervention in which students were taught to use the recommended screening instruments in clinical practice through self-assessment of their own consumption (Systematic Interview of Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Use Disorders Inventory Test), we tested the skills acquired in detecting hazardous drinkers and their knowledge of alcohol prevention activities.

Results: Initially, the concept of hazardous drinker was known by only 24.1% of students and the method of quantifying alcohol consumption by only 3.1%. The prevalence of hazardous drinkers was 17.9% (95% CI: 15.5-20.3). After the educational intervention, 95.8% of students stated that they understood the concept of hazardous drinker and 92.5% stated that they understood how to quantify alcohol consumption, with these proportions being significantly higher than those obtained at baseline (p<0.001). When asked about the intervention's usefulness, 91.3% viewed it favourably.

Conclusion: By using a simple educational intervention, nursing students can improve their knowledge and skill detection of hazardous drinkers and quantification of alcohol consumption. These concepts allow for students to be satisfactorily introduced into the prevention activities during their university education. After assessing their own consumption, a considerable proportion of students realise that they are indulging in excessive alcohol consumption, which could in turn make for greater awareness of the problem among future health professionals.

Keywords: Alcohol consumption; Education; Hazardous drinker; Nursing student; Preventive activities.