Alcohol abuse among general hospital inpatients according to the Munich Alcoholism Test (MALT)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of alcohol abuse in a general hospital impatient population. The study population consisted of 1138 consecutive admissions to three surgical and two medical wards of the University Hospital Rotterdam during a 6-month period. According to the Munich Alcoholism Test (MALT), 7.7% of the patients were identified as having an alcohol problem, but only 0.6% had alcohol abuse recorded as a discharge diagnosis by the Central Medical Registration Unit. In comparison to nonalcoholic patients, alcoholics more often were male and less than 65 years old. They more frequently reported that they lived alone, had prematurely left school, and were unemployed. With regard to medical characteristics, alcoholic patients more often suffered from neurological diseases and intoxication. Compared with nonalcoholics they more frequently had a psychiatric history, and drug abuse and smoking were more prevalent in this group. The alcoholic and nonalcoholic patients did not differ with regard to use of psychotropic medication, although the former more often used vitamins. Based on the abovementioned discriminating features, the percentages of correctly classified alcoholic patients and nonalcoholic patients were 74% and 73%, respectively, with an overall percentage of 73%.