Mapping key components of community-oriented strategies to facilitate alcohol-related early identification and brief...

Hazardous alcohol use is one of the leading risk factors for morbidity and mortality in the world. Early identification and brief interventions (EIBIs) delivered in primary care is an effective but underutilized strategy to address this issue. Community-oriented strategies (COS) are suggested to facilitate EIBI delivery. COS are public health activities directed to the general population raising awareness and encouraging behaviour change. Unfortunately, it remains unclear what these COS should comprise and what their added value might be in EIBI delivery. To map the available information on COS aiming to facilitate alcohol-related EIBI delivery in general practice. A scoping review, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping reviews guidelines, was used to map both grey and peer-reviewed literature. Of the 6586 information sources screened, 8 sources were retained in this review. Three COS are currently described in the literature, all with their different components. They include the use of mass media, self-assessment tools and waiting room actions. Waiting room actions comprising audio recordings or computerized self-assessment tools significantly increase the discussion on alcohol use in primary care. The effect of mass media and community-wide self-assessment tools on EIBI delivery remains to be determined. Currently, the described COS lack empirical justification to motivate their added value in facilitating EIBI delivery. However, a theoretical reflection showed the use of a limited set of behaviour change techniques, which might support the use of COS. There remains a lot of possible strategies to explore. This review highlights the current evidence gap and discusses the next steps.