
@article{ref1,
title="Prevalence of alcohol problems among elderly patients in a university hospital",
journal="Addiction",
year="2000",
author="Ganry, O. and Joly, J. P. and Queval, M. P. and Dubreuil, A.",
volume="95",
number="1",
pages="107-113",
abstract="AIMS: To assess the prevalence of alcohol abuse and the prevalence of alcohol-related discharge diagnosis in an elderly general hospital population. DESIGN: On a randomly selected day, all patients aged 65 years and over admitted to a university hospital were screened. SETTING: University Hospital of Amiens, France. PARTICIPANTS: All patients aged 65 years and over were approached and requested to take part in the study. They were interviewed using the CAGE questionnaire and with a structured questionnaire regarding life-style, and asked about their usual daily alcohol consumption. The medical history of each patient was taken. In total, 612 patients fulfilled the age criteria, but 205 patients (33.6%) had to be excluded owing to predefined exclusion criteria (e.g. dementia, aphasia, terminal illness ...) and 37 patients (6%) refused to participate. FINDINGS: The data were derived from 370 patients. The median age was 79 years; 54% reported no alcohol consumption; 9% of patients scored positive on the CAGE questionnaire. The prevalence of patients with a CAGE questionnaire positive was significantly higher among male patients (17%) than female patients (2.5%). The prevalence of patients with alcohol-related discharge diagnosis was 7%. The frequency of higher socio-economic status or divorced status increased significantly with alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: There may be a substantial prevalence of alcohol problems in elderly hospital patients. Research is needed to examine how generalized this problem is.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0965-2140",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}