Alcohol Research Center, Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, District of Columbia 20059, USA.
J Natl Med Assoc. 2013 Spring;105(1):42-9. doi: 10.1016/s0027-9684(15)30084-5.
Ethnic and cultural differences in patterns of alcohol use disorders must be understood in order to address improvement in prevention of such disorders and accessibility to health care services. The purpose of this study was to evaluate factors that influence the utilization of medical and mental health services among alcohol-dependent and non-alcohol-dependent African Americans.
A cohort of 454 African Americans was evaluated. Alcohol-dependent participants were recruited from various inpatient treatment facilities in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area and through advertisement and word of mouth. Non-alcohol-dependent participants were recruited by advertisements. Each participant was administered the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism to assess alcohol dependency and the Family History Assessment module to access family history of alcoholism. Xl Test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data.
Alcohol dependence was more prevalent among men, those with lower income, those with less education, and they utilized mental health counseling as opposed to medical-based therapy. Increased reports of medical conditions such as migraine (p<.001), loss of consciousness (p=.001), and sexually transmitted diseases: (p<.001) were also associated with alcohol dependency. Other factors, including visits to inpatient treatment programs, were directly related to incidence of alcohol dependency regardless of gender status (p<.001).
This study suggests an association exists among alcohol dependence, medical conditions, health care, and mental care utilization among African Americans. Future research may benefit from investigating if an association exists between alcohol use disorders and health care utilization for other ethnic groups.
为了改善酒精使用障碍的预防工作并提高医疗服务的可及性，必须了解种族和文化差异对酒精使用障碍模式的影响。本研究旨在评估影响酒精依赖和非酒精依赖的非裔美国人使用医疗和心理健康服务的因素。
评估了 454 名非裔美国人的队列。酒精依赖组的参与者是从华盛顿特区大都市区的各种住院治疗设施以及通过广告和口碑招募的。非酒精依赖组的参与者是通过广告招募的。每位参与者都接受了酒精依赖症遗传的半结构式评估以及家族酒精依赖史评估模块，以评估酒精依赖和家族酒精依赖史。Xl 检验和方差分析用于分析数据。
男性、收入较低、教育程度较低的人更易患酒精依赖症，他们更倾向于接受心理健康咨询而不是基于医学的治疗。更多报告的医疗状况，如偏头痛（p<.001）、意识丧失（p=.001）和性传播疾病（p<.001）也与酒精依赖症有关。其他因素，包括住院治疗计划的就诊次数，与性别无关，与酒精依赖症的发生率直接相关（p<.001）。
本研究表明，非裔美国人的酒精依赖症、医疗状况、医疗保健和精神保健利用之间存在关联。未来的研究可能会受益于研究其他族裔群体中是否存在酒精使用障碍与医疗保健利用之间的关联。
