Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Feb 2016
Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Prevalence of Clinically Recognized Alcohol Use Disorders Among Patients from the U.S. Veterans Health Administration.
Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are common and have worse consequences for racial/ethnic minority groups than whites. AUDs are often underrecognized in clinical settings, but it is unknown whether the prevalence of clinically recognized AUD varies across racial/ethnic groups. We describe the overall and age- and gender-stratified prevalence of clinically documented AUD across 3 racial/ethnic groups in a national sample of Veterans Health Administration (VA) patients. ⋯ In contrast to findings from the general population, the prevalence of clinically recognized AUD among VA patients is generally highest among black men and women and lowest among white men and Hispanic women. This is the first study to describe the prevalence of clinically recognized AUD across racial/ethnic groups in a large healthcare system. Future research comparing estimates to diagnoses based on structured gold-standard assessments is needed to understand whether AUDs are under- or overidentified.