The Seccat Survey: I. The Costs and Consequences of Alcoholism

Abstract

The SECCAT survey assessed the Socio-Economic Costs and Consequences of Alcoholism Treatment. Basic demographic and health service resource use data (for a previous 6-month period) were obtained fro a cohort of 586 eligible patients who had had treatment at the Alcohol Problems Clinic (APC) in Edinburgh. The cohort was 75% male with a mean age of 46.0 years. Seventy-six per cent had an initial diagnosis of alcohol dependence and 21% alcohol abuse. Use of health services was highly variable. Thirty-six per cent agreed to be interviewed to provide data on their level of abstinence, on resource use, on quality of life (SF-36), on socio-economic characteristics and key adverse events. These 212 individuals had similar age and sex ratios to the full cohort, but alcohol abusers were under-represented. Nineteen patients reported no days of abstinence and 41 were abstinent over the whole 6-month period. Patients experienced a much poorer quality of life than a normal population in terms of all dimensions of the SF-36. The average total health care costs of the interviewed patients were 1134 pounds of which 38% were related to treatment at the APC. Analysis suggests that alcohol-dependent patients make substantially more costly use of resources than abusers and experience a much poorer quality of life. No clear relationship of cost to degree of abstinence has been found. There is a clear and consistent relationship of SF-36 scores and drinking behavior.

Health-Related Quality of Life in HIV-Infected Patients: The Role of Substance Use

“…This finding differs from previously reported associations between decreased mental and physical HRQOL, and heavy alcohol use. [16][17][18][19]42,43 The majority of these studies, however, were conducted in non-HIV-infected populations and reported associations in persons with more severe medical and addiction issues than those in our sample. In a national probability sample of Americans receiving care for HIV-infection, Sherbourne et al 6 also found no association between mental or physical HRQOL and heavy drinking.…”

“…11,12 In non-HIV-infected populations, decreased HRQOL is associated with opiate dependence, [13][14][15] and alcohol dependence. [16][17][18][19] However, previous studies of HRQOL in HIV-infected populations have considered only summary variables for drug use. 6,7 Little is known about the relative contribution of specific illicit drugs of abuse to HRQOL in HIV-infected populations.…”

Effect of exercise on balance performance, gait-speed and quality of life of individuals with substance abuse disorders

“…This implies that job placement, earning capacity, and social status determine quality of life of individual with substance abuse disorders. This may be due to the fact that the cost of maintaining substance abuse habit is high (McKenna, 1996;Gbiri et al, 2011).…”

Alcohol Dependence and The Quality Of Life

“…Alkol bağımlıların-da yapılan bir çalışmada, bağımlıların SF-36 yaşam kalitesi alt grup puanları kontrol grubuna göre birçok alanda daha düşük bulunmuştur (13,14) . Alkol-madde bağımlılığında sağlık hizmetlerinden daha fazla yararlanıldığı bildirilmiştir (15) .…”