Patterns of alcohol consumption among users of primary health care services in a Brazilian city

The scope of this paper was to identify alcohol consumption patterns among users of primary health care services in the city of Bebedouro in the state of Sao Paulo, verifying the association between usage patterns and demographic and behavioral variables of the sample. It is a cross-sectional study involving 755 subjects over 18 years of age who sought primary health care services in the city of Bebedouro. To investigate patterns of alcohol use, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used. For statistical analysis the chi-square and binary logistic regression tests were used. The results showed that 78% of users were abstainers or low risk users, 22% had problems with alcohol, 10% were risk cases, 2% were high-risk users and 10% probable addicts. The greatest predictors of usage risk were males, income > than 6 minimum wages and smokers; for addicts the most important predictors were: males, working in commerce and smokers. A significant proportion of users showed patterns of problematic use of alcohol, which reinforces the need for preventive actions, since the primary health care services are an excellent opportunity to combine opportunities for screening and usage strategies for reducing harmful effects related to the problematic use of alcohol.