OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of alcoholic use disorder among elderly non-psychiatric inpatients in a tertiary hospital and the ability of the medical staff to identify alcoholism among this specific population.
METHODOLOGY: This is a cross-sectional analytic study. Inpatients aged 65 and above were drawn from a tertiary general hospital. The Tagalog edition of the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test-Geriatric version (SMAST-G) was administered to these subjects. The screened positive respondents were classified as non-hazardous, hazardous and harmful drinkers. They were also classified as either alcohol abusers or dependents based on DSM-IV-TR. The ability of the medical staff to identify alcoholism was assessed by interviewing the attending physician and reviewing the medical records of the patients.
RESULTS: The overall prevalence rate of alcoholic use disorder among elderly non-psychiatric inpatients was 18.5%, with male respondents comprising 83.3%. A strong association was observed between elderly alcohol use and male gender, higher educational attainment, age less than 75, married status, smoking status, current employment and past manual occupation. The identification rate of medical staff was computed at 41.7%, with internal medicine physicians detecting the most number of cases.
CONCLUSION: Approximately one-fifth of elderly inpatients has alcohol use disorder and has been neglected substantially by the medical staff.