Prevalence of known and hidden alcoholism in the revisited lundby population

Summary Using the new data from a second followup of the Lundby 1947 cohort, the aim of the present paper has been to analyze some relationships between known and hidden alcoholism in a Swedish general population sample. Information was collected by psychiatrists trough free, exploratory field interviews checked against documentary records. Alcoholism was medically defined for present purposes. Information was obtained for 98% of the 952 men surviving the cross-section date July 1, 1972. The distribution of alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders in the total population and in age subgroups was analyzed epidemiologically. The true prevalence of alcoholism in the adult men was 9.5%, comprising 7.2% known and 2.3% hidden. The proportion of hidden to known cases was 0.301 (Temperance Boards 0.871, Psychiatric Agencies 0.961, Drinking and driving offences 4.31). The main finding that about 70% of male alcoholics in Lundby appears to be known to the agencies is at variance with current views that there is an iceberg under the tip, though consistent with Rubington's suggestion that so-called hidden alcoholism is not totally but partially invisible in welfare societies.