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Aim To assess the extent of undergraduate medical training on alcohol use disorders (AUD) and smoking, and medical students' perceived knowledge regarding consequences of, and treatment options for, these disorders compared with other chronic conditions. Design Cross-sectional survey assessing teaching and perceived knowledge of health consequences and treatment options for AUD and smoking compared with diabetes and hypertension. Setting Medical schools in Germany. Participants Twenty-five of 36 medical school offices (response rate 69.4%) and 19526 of 39358 students from 27 medical schools (response rate 49.6%). Measurement Medical schools were asked to provide information on curricular coverage of the four conditions. Students reported their year of study and perceived knowledge about the consequences of all four disorders and perceived knowledge of treatment options. Findings Courses time-tabled approximately half as many teaching hours on AUD and tobacco as on diabetes or hypertension. Final-year students reported high levels of knowledge of consequences of all four conditions and how to treat diabetes and hypertension, but only 20% believed they knew how to treat alcohol use disorders or smoking. Conclusions Curriculum coverage in German medical schools of alcohol use disorders and smoking is half that of diabetes and hypertension, and in the final year of their undergraduate training most students reported inadequate knowledge of how to intervene to address them. © 2012 The Authors, Addiction © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/j.1360-0443.2012.03907.x

Type

Journal article

Journal

Addiction

Publication Date

01/01/2012

Volume

107

Pages

1878 - 1882