Martin A. Plant

Mean cell volume and gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase as markers of drinking in working men.

The usefulness of serum-gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase (gamma-GT) and mean cell volume (MCV) as markers of alcohol consumption was assessed in men in employment (266 company directors and 222 manual workers in alcohol-production firms) and in 34 male alcoholic patients. The correlations of admitted consumption with gamma-GT were 0.307 (directors) and 0.418 (manual workers) and with MCV 0.439 (directors) and 0.360 (manual workers). A man with an MCV of over 98 fl and a gamma-GT level above 50 i.u./l had a 62% chance of admitting to drinking over 450 g alcohol per week. Although the probability of being a heavy drinker increases progressively with elevation in both these tests, as screening tests they lack power, though false positives may be explained in party by inaccurate self-reports by both survey subjects and patients. For clinical purposes, however, the tests have a use in supplementing self-report and in following problem drinkers in outpatient treatment.

Self-reported alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems: A study in four Scottish towns

SummarySelf-reports of alcohol consumption among representative random samples of respondents in four Scottish towns were collected on two occasions by means of identical surveys. The towns were Ayr and Glasgow in the South and Aberdeen and Inverness in the North. Results showed that respondents in the North were significantly more likely to be drinkers than those in the South. There were considerable local variations in drinking patterns, and no clear relationship was evident between the proportion of drinkers or abstainers in any one town and the proportion of who were “heavy drinkers”. Even so, the relative levels of self-reported average alcohol consumption in the four towns were closely related to the rates of alcohol-related crimes, morbidity and mortality.

Disguised and undisguised questionnaires compared: Two alternative approaches to drinking behaviour surveys

SummarySurveys based upon self-reports of drinking habits are likely to produce an underestimate of consumption patterns. In order to investigate whether some approaches produce more accurate results than others, a “disguised” interview schedule, presented as part of a health and leisure survey was compared with an “undisguised” schedule, presented as part of a survey of smoking and drinking habits. Results indicated no advantage in disguising a survey of drinking habits as a health and leisure investigation. Neither overall contact rate, refusal rate nor mean reported alcohol consumption were affected by the use of these alternatives. The disguised schedule produced a significantly higher mean reported alcohol consumption than the undisguised schedule in the working-class area surveyed, while the reverse occurred in the middle-class area. This interaction could be investigated further.