Predictive value of MCV for hazardous drinking in the community

A recent study suggested that general practitioners (GPs) do not see the necessity of investigating MCVs which unexpectedly and only slightly exceed the reference limit, despite the association between MCV and alcohol abuse. Because a literature search could not find a study of the predictive value of the MCV for hazardous drinking in the community, such a study was undertaken among a random sample of 338 adults living in a regional Australian city. Twenty-nine of the adults admitted drinking hazardously. The MCV with the optimum sensitivity and specificity for identifying the hazardous drinkers was determined. An MCV of > 94 fl identified as many as 35% of the hazardous drinkers whilst misclassifying only 6% of the non-hazardous drinkers. The predictive value was even greater among males, 67%. We conclude that inquiring into MCVs > 94 fl will lead to GPs identifying a significant proportion of adults in the community admitting to hazardous drinking.