THE SECCAT SURVEY .1. THE COSTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ALCOHOLISM

The SECCAT survey assessed the Socio-Economic Costs and Consequences o f Alcoholism Treatment. Basic demographic and health service resource use data (for a previous 6-month period) were obtained for a cohort of 586 eligible patients who had had treatment at the Alcohol Problems C linic (APC) in Edinburgh. The cohort was 75% male with a mean age of 4 6.0 years. Seventy-six per cent had an initial diagnosis of alcohol de pendence and 21% alcohol abuse. Use of health services was highly vari able. Thirty-six per cent agreed to be interviewed to provide data on their level of abstinence, on resource use, on quality of life (SF-36) , on socio-economic characteristics and key adverse events. These 212 individuals had similar age and sex ratios to the full cohort, but alc ohol abusers were underrepresented. Nineteen patients reported no days of abstinence and 41 were abstinent over the whole 6-month period. Pa tients experienced a much poorer quality of life than a normal populat ion in terms of all dimensions of the SF-36. The average total health care costs of the interviewed patients were 1134 pound of which 38% we re related to treatment at the APC. Analysis suggests that alcohol-dep endent patients make substantially more costly use of resources than a busers and experience a much poorer quality of life. No clear relation ship of cost to degree of abstinence has been found. There is a clear and consistent relationship of SF-36 scores and drinking behaviour.