Associations between patient religiosity and alcohol attitudes and knowledge in an alcohol treatment program

Studies, carried out in generalized populations, have shown inverse relationships between degree of religiosity and attitudes towards drinking, knowledge about alcohol, amount of alcohol consumed, and physical complications of alcohol abuse. Within a population of chronic male alcoholics, we found that the more religious patients had a more anti-alcohol attitude; however, none of the other correlations was statistically significant. Within this population, the least religious patients were more likely to change their attitude toward alcohol and to increase their knowledge of the deleterious effects of alcohol after 4 weeks of treatment on an inpatient rehabilitation unit.