Convictions for drunkenness or drunken driving, sick absenteeism, and morbidity in middle-aged males with different levels of serum gamma-glutamyltransferase

In a continuous population study of middle-aged males in Malmö, serum γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT) has been utilized both as a biochemical indicator of alcohol consumption and as an aid in further investigation and treatment. The individuals in the top decentile of the GGT distribution were compared with individuals in other GGT brackets. The number of individuals with legal convictions for drunkenness or drunken driving was 2.8 times larger in the top decentile of GGT compared with those below the median. The corresponding ratio for drunken driving alone was 3.4. The number of sick days was analyzed for 1,290 individuals in a 21-year long-term study before screening and random subsamples with different GGT values were compared. Increasing GGT values were correlated with the disability rate over all years. There was a dramatic rise in the occurrence of sick days in the top decentile of GGT during the 6 years before screening. Conversely, 50% of the individuals (below the median on GGT) had less sick absenteeism than the mean for all Swedish males throughout the 21 years before screening. Morbidity was analyzed in a subsample of 285 individuals with >90 sick days during the final 3 years of the study. The ratios of disability between the individuals in the highest and lowest decentile of the GGT distribution were highest in the diagnostic group's injuries (5.5) and mental disorders (4.3). We concluded that an accumulation of alcohol-related disabilities is present in groups of individuals with high GGT values.