Consumption of Care Among Problem Drinkers in a Small Industrial Town in Sweden

Romelsj A Consumption of care among problem drinkers in a smallindustrial town in Sweden. Family Practice 1988; 5: 271–277. A study of visits to general practitioners, district nurses,occupational health doctors, social services and inpatient careduring one year was conducted for all 282 male and 30 femaleproblem drinkers identified from various registers in a Swedishindustrial town. The 4.5% male problem drinkers aged 20 to 79years accounted for 13.8% of visits to general practitioners,15.3% of stays in somatic departments, 74.1% of stays in psychiatriccare, and over 50% of visits to the social services by malesin those ages. Care consumption by the problem drinkers wasfor both sexes highest among young people. Data about alcoholproblems at any time could be found in 42% of the records formale problem drinkers, while 21% were given a diagnosis of alcoholismby their general practitioner. The problem drinkers were givena great variety of diagnoses. The results emphasize that allpatients should be asked about alcohol habits and that educationand programmes for prevention and treatment should be organizedby primary care together with other relevant parties.