Background
Despite the increase in daily alcohol intake in recent decades and the implementation of national health screenings, effective management strategies for alcohol consumption remain outdated. This review evaluates intervention studies on screening and behavioral counseling for unhealthy alcohol use, with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of interventions and improving health outcomes.
Methods
On the basis of the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation)- ADOLOPMENT framework, systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials were examined to investigate the effectiveness of screening and counseling interventions in reducing unhealthy alcohol use. Five key questions were generated, and an evaluation and quality assessment of existing systematic reviews and new evidence related to each key question were conducted.
Results
Updating the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and Cochrane 2018 reviews, we identified five new randomized trials that evaluated screening and counseling interventions for unhealthy alcohol use. For Key Question 2, the sensitivity and specificity of the new screening studies were consistent with those of prior research. Brief interventions were confirmed to reduce alcohol use (Key Question 4a), although additional research is required for a wider array of health outcomes. One study highlighted the benefits of counseling interventions for newborn health indicators in pregnant women (Key Question 4b). No new evidence was found regarding the harms of screening (Key Question 3) or alcohol use reduction interventions (Key Question 5).
Conclusion
This review supports the continued use of brief interventions to reduce alcohol consumption in highrisk groups and highlights the need for culturally tailored research in Korea.

Citations

• A year of significant progress for the Korean Journal of Family Medicine
  Seung-Won Oh
  Korean Journal of Family Medicine.2026; 47(1): 1.     CrossRef

Background
: The management of problem drinking is very important in family practice and primary care. This research was designed to evaluate the effect of brief intervention on heavy drinking patients in family practice.

Methods : The subjects were composed of 34 Korean males who had findings of alcoholic liver disease in the general health examination. About 5 to 10 minute outpatient interventions consisting of brief advice on drinking problems were delivered in the mean (±SD) frequency of 3.5 (±1.4) times during the 12 weeks. The effect of brief intervention was evaluated by the number of drinking days per week and drinks per drinking day during the 4 weeks before brief intervention and 12 weeks later. The result was compared with the control group (24 males) who had the same condition but did not receive the brief intervention.

Results : The mean (±SD) drinking days per week were significantly (P＜0.001) decreased from 3.5 (±1.7) to 2.0 (±2.1) days and the mean (±SD) drinks per drinking day were significantly (P＜0.001) decreased from 9.5 (±3.5) to 5.1 (±4.3) drinks. The degree of decrease in the subjects was significantly higher than the control group in both drinking days per week (P=0.001) and drinks per drinking day (P＜0.005).

Conclusion : The brief intervention by family physicians is an effective clinical method in the management of heavy drinking patients.