The Prevalence of Alcoholism in a Community General Hospital

The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), medical histories, and diagnoses were employed to determine the percentage of alcoholics in a general hospital. Of 200 patients, 18 percent of the men and 5.5 percent of the women were diagnosed as alcoholic; 3.5 percent of the rest were questionable. The author believes that a simple screening test like the MAST provides a more sensitive measure of alcoholism in a general hospital population than do medical work-ups and physicians' diagnoses.