Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry

Objectives：The alcohol dependence in elderly people has been prevalent because of increase in geriatric population. However, it is difficult to find out alcohol dependence in the aged, because they have less specific clinical features as compared with adult alcoholics. The aims of this study were to screen alcohol dependence among elderly Koreans and to know the clinical characteristics of Korean delerly alcoholics.

Methods：The questionnaires translated into Korean such as Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test(MAST-K), the Brief MAST and the MAST-Geriatirc Version(MAST-KG) were used to screen alcohol dependence in the elderly alcoholic inpatients aged over 60(N＝43), adult alcoholic inpatients within 20-59 Yrs of age(N＝60), which were compared with age matched normal healthy aged(N＝18) or adult controls(N＝45). The demographic data such as sex, age, education, occupation, socioeconomic status, marital status, numbers of children, dwelling and religion as well as alcohol history such as duration of alcohol drinking, onset age, family history, impulsivity, somatic illness and motivation were also obtained to identify characteristic features of Korean aged alcoholics by structured interviews.

Results：1) The aged alcoholics had the charateristic features of more in males, lower age, low education levels, more in blue-collar workers, lower socioeconomic class, more in single, few babies, more living alone, having no religion without statistical significance. 2) The onset age of alcohol dependence was significantly higher in the aged alcoholics(45.3±13.6Yrs) than in the adult alcoholics(27.7±8.7Yrs)(p<0.0001). The duration of problematic alcohol drinking was significantly longer in the aged alcoholics(22.0±15.1Yrs) than in adult alcoholics(14.2±8.4Yrs)(p<0.01). Otherwise, there were no significant difference between aged and adult alcoholics in the family history, imulsivity, somatic illness and motivation. 3) The mean score of the MAST-K was significantly higher in the aged alcoholics(20.6±5.4) than in the normal aged(6.7±4.4)(p<0.0001), which was significantly lower than in the adult alcoholics(26.2±8.0) and in normal adult controls(9.5±3.2)(p<0.05). The mean score of the Brief MAST was significantly lower in the aged alcoholics(9.3±3.5) than in the adult alcoholics(14.5±6.6)(p<0.0001). The mean score of the MAST-KG was significantly higher in the aged alcoholics(10.6±3.5) than in the normal aged(4.8±4.3)(p<0.0001). The former was significantly lower than in the adult alcoholics(12.9±4.3)(p<0.005), and the mean score was 4.5±2.8 in normal adult controls. 4) The items which showed statistically significant differences between aged alcoholics and normal aged controls could be found in 10 items of the MAST-K(items 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 14, 17, 21, 22 and 23), 2 items of the Brief MAST(items 2 and 9), and 7 items of the MAST-KG(items 6, 13, 18, 19, 22, 23 and 24)(p<0.01).

Conclusions：The scores of the MAST-K, the Brief MAST and the MAST-KG were significantly lower in the aged alcoholics than those in the adult alcoholics(p<0.05). The statistically significant differences between aged alcoholics and normal aged controls could be found in 10 items of the MAST-K, 2 items of the Brief MAST and 7 items of the MAST-KG. Therefore, a briefer rating scales around 10 items are needed to screen alcohol dependence among Korean elderly people.

Keywords Aged alcoholics;Onset age;MAST-K;The Brief MAST;MAST-KG.