Quality of life of alcoholics and non-alcoholics: does excessive drinking make a difference in the urban setting?

Abstract

The current study assessed whether perceived quality of life differed between alcoholics and non-alcoholics. Patients attending an urban-based hospital were screened for alcoholism using the CAGE questionnaire. Patients were recruited from an out-patient clinic setting as well as from an in-patient substance abuse unit. Quality of life scores were based on Chubon's (1987) Life Situation Survey. Results indicated that alcoholics experience a lower quality of life than their non-alcoholic counterparts regardless of setting; however, all patients reported experiencing poor life quality. The impact of alcoholism treatment programmes on patients already experiencing low quality of life is questioned.

Quality of life, alcohol detoxification and relapse: Is quality of life a predictor of relapse or only a secondary outcome measure?

“…The baseline QOL domain scores for Physical and Psychological health, Social relationships and Environment were statistically significantly lower than those of the reference population. These results are consistent with previous studies that used MOS-SF-based tools [2,3,10] and the LSS [49] to compare AUD patients entering detoxification against a reference population.…”

Religious support and religious struggle as predictors of quality of life in alkoholics anonymous: Moderation by duration of abstinence

“…Research results suggest that individuals who abuse alcohol are characterized by lower quality of life in comparison to healthy individuals (Welsh, Buchsbaum, & Kaplan, 1993). Based on the study by Foster, Powell, Marshall, and Peters (1999), it seems that very low quality of life can be improved by complete abstinence, a reduction of the amount of alcohol consumed, or controlled drinking.…”

Tobacco Consumption, Alcohol Intake Frequency and Quality of Life: Results from a Nationally Representative Croatian Sample Study

“…One of the plausible explanations, supported by the fact that this difference appears only in the group of frequent drinkers, might be that the majority of the people who have a drinking problem consume alcohol in order to avoid coping with problems. Although we confirmed that frequent drinking can be interpreted as a symptom of low QOL (Welsh et al, 1993), we need to bear in mind the relevant distinction between frequent drinkers who drink in order to cope with problems or to conform to social pressure and frequent drinkers who drink in order to enhance pleasurable mood or social engagement.…”

“…The greatest difference (15%) on the QOL scale that can be attributed to reasons for drinking is among the group of people who drink at least 4 times a week. This difference might be attributed to problem drinking that is associated with conforming to social pressure and coping with problems (Welsh, Buchsbaum, & Kaplan, 1993;Volk et al, 1997).…”