Prevalence of male alcoholism in a cohort observed for 25 years

The purpose of this work was to establish the age-specific prevalence rates of alcoholism syndromes in a cohort defined 25 years ago. Information has been collected by psychiatrists through free, exploratory field interviews subsequently checked against documentary records. Alcoholism was medically defined in three categories (abusers, addicts, and chronics). Drinking symptomatology active within the last year was estimated for 97.6% of the 952 men alive at the cross-section date July 1, 1972. Only three women were diagnosed as current alcoholics (0.3%) and women were excluded from the analyses. The prevalence of alcoholism among men was 9.5% (abuse 3.3%, addiction 2.8%, chronic alcoholism 3.4%). Type and severity of alcoholism were found to have different patterns for different age groups. The number of persons with the more severe forms had increased between 1957 and 1972, most apparent chronic alcoholism in age group 50-59 (from 1.1% to 6.8%). The longitudinal dynamic will be the object of special analyses.