[Prevalence of alcoholism in the population attending a urban health center].
OBJECTIVE
To find out the prevalence of alcoholism among those attending an urban Health Centre. To establish the level of concordance between the CAGE and MALT-O tests in the detection of alcoholism and to assess the effectiveness of the joint use of the above tests.


METHODS
Observational, crossover study. SITE. San Ignacio de Loyola Health Centre (Cuenca).


METHODS
A sample of 499 people of both sexes and over 18 years old was chosen from among the people attending the Centre. Systematic sampling from a random starting-point was used.


RESULTS
Each person was interviewed with a questionnaire containing the CAGE and MALT-O items and sociodemographic data. The person who gave at least two positive answers in both tests was considered an alcoholic. A total of 402 filled-in questionnaires were returned. 27 people were found to have two or more positive items, which mean a 6.7% prevalence of alcoholism (CI 95% = 4.2-9.1). This broke down into a prevalence of 1.33% among women and 13.63% among men (p < 0.0001). The concordance level, determined by the Kappa coefficient, between the two tests was 0.29 (CI 95% = 0.11-0.47).


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of alcoholism found is greater than in other national studies on the out-patient population, although it continues to be low in comparison with several foreign surveys. On the other hand, we seem to gain nothing in the detection of alcoholism by adding the MALT-O to the CAGE test, even when the concordance level between the two tests has come out low.
Martínez Vizcaíno
V
V
Centro de Salud San Ignacio de Loyola, Unidad Docente de Medicina Familiar y Comunitaria, Cuenca.
Jarabo Crespo
Y
Y
Salcedo Aguilar
F
F
Ordoño Domínguez
J F
JF
Santiago Pérez
S
S
Monreal Redondo
D
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003151:Community Health Centers; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013030:Spain; D014504:Urban Health
Prevalencia de alcoholismo entre la población que acude a un centro de salud urbano.