Hazardous alcohol use: a cross-sectional study of cardiology patients in Sweden.

Background: Alcohol use is understudied in cardiology settings. We investigated the prevalence of hazardous alcohol use and probable dependence among cardiology patients.

Methods: Cross-sectional study in three regions of Sweden. Alcohol use was assessed using the AUDIT-10 questionnaire. We defined hazardous alcohol use as: AUDIT-10 ≥ 6 for women or ≥ 8 for men (primary definition) and probable dependence as AUDIT-10 ≥ 13 for women or ≥ 15 for men. We examined associations using logistic regression.

Results: We included 1107 participants (median age = 73 years; range = 18-102; 66% men). The prevalence of hazardous alcohol use was 7.8% (95%CI = 6.2-9.3, primary definition) and 0.9% (95%CI = 0.3-1.5) had probable alcohol dependence. We found increased odds of hazardous alcohol use in: age groups 18-39 years (OR = 4.90, 95%CI = 1.41-17.08) and 40-64 years (OR = 4.02, 95%CI = 1.69-9.67) compared to ≥80 years; a city compared to a small town (OR = 2.44, 95%CI = 1.02-5.84); participants with unhealthy diets (OR = 2.37, 95%CI = 1.36-4.13), and overweight participants (OR = 2.25, 95%CI = 1.23-4.12).

Conclusions: Hazardous alcohol use affected about one in 12 cardiology patients. However, less than 1 in 100 had probable alcohol dependence. Findings suggest that many cardiology patients with hazardous alcohol use are appropriate for brief interventions, and may not require more intensive alcohol dependence treatments.