Home > Alcohol disorders and older people: a preliminary exploration of healthcare professionals’ knowledge, in Ireland.

Waldron, Ashleigh and McGrath, Margaret (2012) Alcohol disorders and older people: a preliminary exploration of healthcare professionals’ knowledge, in Ireland. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 19, (6), pp. 352-358. https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2012.19.6.352.

Aims: to explore knowledge of alcohol disorders in older adults among healthcare professionals in Ireland.

Methods: a cross sectional postal survey of 480 healthcare professionals was conducted. Knowledge was explored using 25 true/false statements which focused on four key areas relating to alcohol disorders among older people: (i) general knowledge of alcohol disorders among older people (ii) impacts of alcohol disorders on health outcomes for older people (iii) management of alcohol disorders among older people and (iv) treatment of alcohol disorders in older people. Demographic data was gathered using a short form designed for the study.

Findings: 157 usable surveys were returned giving a response rate of 33%. The majority of respondents had not undertaken specialist training in alcohol disorders among older people. However despite this, overall knowledge of the topic was high. The mean score was 17.9 (SD 2.6) out of a possible 25. The study identified gaps in participants’ knowledge of intervention strategies for alcohol disorders among older people. A statistically significant difference in knowledge was found between professional groups with psychologists having significantly higher scores than occupational therapists. Professionals who spent less than 50% of their clinical time working with older adults had significantly higher knowledge scores than those who spent 100% of their time working with older people.

Conclusions: the findings suggest that healthcare professionals in Ireland would benefit from further education which focuses on intervention strategies in order to ensure that the need of older people with alcohol disorders are appropriately addressed.


Item Type
Article
Publication Type
Irish-related, Article
Drug Type
Alcohol
Intervention Type
Screening / Assessment
Date
2012
Identification #
https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2012.19.6.352
Page Range
pp. 352-358
Publisher
Mark Allen Group
Volume
19
Number
6
EndNote
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