Alcohol use and abuse among medical and surgical in-patients in a general hospital.
OBJECTIVE
Non-recognition of alcohol problems in medical and surgical patients may have adverse consequences. This may be minimised by having a high index of suspicion and the use of screening instruments.


METHODS
Items from two alcohol abuse screening instruments (CAGE and Patient Health Questionnaire) were administered on medical and surgical in-patients in a general hospital during a one-year period, to determine the prevalence of alcohol use and abuse.


RESULTS
The prevalence of alcohol use was 49.8% and for alcohol abuse 14.8%. Paternal alcohol use and cigarette smoking were found to be good indicators of alcohol abuse.


CONCLUSIONS
Detailed inquiry about alcohol use, looking for indices of cigarette smoking and routine use of screening instruments should assist in discovering many patients with alcohol abuse who probably would have denied having the problem.
Military Hospital Port Harcourt, P. O. Box 8869, Shomolu, Lagos State, Nigeria.
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Okulate
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Odunaike
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria; D015995:Prevalence