Changes in alcohol-related inpatient care in Stockholm County in relation to socioeconomic status during a period of decline in alcohol consumption.

Alcohol sales in Stockholm County decreased by 18 per cent from 1976 to 1981. The socioeconomic status of inpatients treated for alcohol psychosis, alcoholism, alcohol intoxication, liver cirrhosis, and pancreatitis was studied by linking data from the National Housing and Population Censuses in 1975 and 1980 with the inpatient care registers for 1976 and 1981. In both years, all rates were highest for people outside the labor market and lowest among white collar employees. The employment rate for those aged 25-44 years and treated in 1981 for alcohol psychosis, alcoholism, and alcohol intoxication--already low in 1975--had drifted further downward by 1980. Total rates of inpatient treatment for alcohol-related diagnoses generally declined but the gap between blue collar workers and white collar workers widened. We conclude that the goal for national alcohol policy, suggested by the WHO--a reduction of per capita consumption--should be combined with additional measures that will reach all social groups.