© 1987 Medical Council on Alcohol
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HEAVY ALCOHOL DRINKING AND RELATED SYMPTOMS IN A POPULATION STUDY OF URBAN MEN
Department of Family Medicine, University Hospital Uppsala, Sweden
Department of Clinical Alcohol and Drug Research, Karolinska Institute Stockholm, Sweden
*Author for correspondence
Received 24 February 1987; accepted 25 June 1987
An age-stratified random sample of 228 men was selected from the urban districts of Solna and Sundbyberg in Stockholm. Two hundred of these men (90%) underwent a health survey comprising a general medical examination, taking of a medical and social history, blood and urine tests, roentgenography of the heart and lungs, ECG, electroneurography and computed tomography of the brain. The purpose of the present study was to determine alcohol consumption levels and their correlation with symptoms of heavy drinking and with age. The subjects were collected according to a rectangular age distribution, with age ranges of 20–29, 30–39,40–49, 50–59 and 60–65 years. Quartiles were used in order to obtain homogeneous strata and to group the sample concerning alcohol consumption. Two measures of alcohol consumption were used–the amount of alcohol consumed in the previous week in g of absolute alcohol per day, and the typical peak consumption in the last six months. Three symptoms related to heavy drinking were studied: (1) inability to cut down or stop drinking, referred to here as subjective, relative loss of control over drinking; (2) morning shakes and malaise relieved by drinking, termed morning drinks; (3) amnesia induced by alcohol, referred to as blackouts. Ten per cent of the men had all three alcohol symptoms and 52% had no alcohol symptoms at all. Twenty-nine per cent had lost control over the amount they drank. Blackouts were noted for 33% and morning drinks for 25%.
Three groups of participants with different degrees of exposure to alcohol were distinguished: 41 low consumers without alcohol symptoms; an intermediate group of 106 participants; and a heavy-drinking group of 53 men with high consumption and two or more symptoms. There was no significant age difference between any of the groups I–III. Twenty-seven per cent belonged to the heavy-drinking group in this sample from the general population.
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