Health insurance records in the course of alcoholism. A two-year follow-up study

The Health Insurance Records of 32 male alcoholics were related to outcome after 2 years, with regard to drinking habits, self-esteem, social stability and Temperance Board registrations. The numbers of sickness benefit days were found significantly related to drinking habits (p less than 0.05), self esteem (p less than 0.01), social stability (p less than 0.01) and Temperance Board registrations (p less than 0.001). These levels of significance were generally higher than those between the outcome variables themselves. The number of sickness benefit days was superior to the incidence of sickness in describing the clinical course. Categorization according to the diagnoses did not increase the strength of the relationships with outcome variables. The number of sickness benefit days during the 5-year period prior to the first examination was significantly related to Temperance Board registrations (p less than 0.01) and social stability (p less than 0.05) during the follow-up period but not to drinking habits or self-esteem. No relationship was found between the number of sickness benefit days during this 5-year period and the follow-up period. It is concluded that Health Insurance Records are of use in follow-up studies on alcoholics.