Characteristics of alcohol abusers among incidental primary health clinic attenders in an Israeli development town.
BACKGROUND
The belief that alcoholism is rare among Jews appears to be tenable no longer. High rates of alcohol abuse are being reported in subgroups of the population and in socially disadvantageously placed persons. The main objective of this study was to search for etiologic clues for alcohol abuse in different ethnic groups in a development town in southern Israel.


METHODS
A structured questionnaire was answered by 152 randomly selected incidental attenders at a primary health care clinic. Alcohol abuse was determined using the CAGE questionnaire.


RESULTS
The rate of present-time alcohol abuse was 17% and 20% among male Indian and non-Indian clinic attenders, respectively, while life-time abuse was 37% and 25%, respectively. These findings were considerably higher than the reported national rates of 2-3%. Differences were found between alcohol abusers in the various ethnic groups. Non-Indian life-time abusers were characterized by more frequent use of medical services, more reported physical and mental symptoms, more use of psychotropic drugs, and higher rates of unemployment.


CONCLUSIONS
These differences suggest that the non-Indians may include symptomatic drinkers, while the Indians, we propose, may be alcohol abusers for cultural reasons. The extent of the alcohol abuse problem detected in this survey indicates that a major public health issue may exist in development town populations.
Raphael
J
J
Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Fraser
D
D
Boehm
R
R
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D007585:Jews; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012307:Risk Factors