Patterns of Alcohol Use among Patients Who Visited Community Emergency Care Services in Southwestern Brazil

Alcohol is among the most frequently consumed drugs worldwide. However, identification and intervention measures for alcohol abuse have not yet been established. This article reports the results of applying the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) in 463 patients from five centers for emergency care community in a large city in the interior of São Paulo. The relationship between the AUDIT risk-levels of alcohol use and the socio-demographic variables of individuals seeking treatment between August and November 2010 was also examined. The instrument was administered by seven nurses and six students nurses. Individuals with AUDIT scores ≥07 received brief counseling (BC). The main reasons for seeking emergency care were “headache”, “pain”, and “ill-being”. Among the individuals in the study, 95.9% lived in the municipality where the data was collected, 40.7% had an incomplete elementary school education, and the percentage of alcohol dependence was lower among employed individuals (11.9%). The sample was composed of 61.1% men and 38.6% women. Among the men, 18.7% had scores suggesting dependence, and 48% exhibited hazardous drinking levels; the corresponding proportions among women were 3.3% and 16.7%, respectively. The mean age of the participants was 42 years, and 16.2% of the alcohol-dependent users were aged 30 to 49 years. Alcohol use was recorded as the cause of treatment for 3.4% of the individuals. The administration of the AUDIT in a community emergency care setting proved to be a useful for the early identification of high-risk drinkers.