The Impact of Brief Alcohol Interventions in Primary Healthcare: A Systematic Review of Reviews
Alcohol and AlcoholismPublished 13 November 2013Open access
Amy O’Donnell, Peter Anderson, Dorothy Newbury‐Birch, Bernd Schulte, Christiane Sybille Schmidt, Jens Reimer
Citations608
SJR quartileQ2
SJR score0.75
SNIP0.79
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Abstract
This overview highlights the large volume of primarily positive evidence supporting brief alcohol intervention effects as well as some unanswered questions with regards to the effectiveness of brief alcohol intervention across different cultural settings and in specific population groups, and in respect of the optimum content of brief interventions that might benefit from further research.
Keywords
Medicine
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