Abstract
ABSTRACT Background: Alcoholism and alcohol-related diseases are a big problem worldwide, accounting for 3,8% of deaths. There are different structured interviews to estimate the total amount of alcohol consumed during lifetime and the degree of alcohol-dependency. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility of structured interviews in patients with chronic liver disease, and to see if they make the diagnosis of chronic liver disease more accurate. Method: All data in this project is taken from a clinical trial on patients with established liver disease or suspected liver disease in the liver out-patient clinic at Aker university hospital, Norway. A total of 139 patients were included, with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic etiologies. Patient history was obtained and the degree of fibrosis was determined. Alcohol history was obtained either by interview or by self-report, by use of lifetime drinking history (LDH) and The alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT). The validity of each form was determined, the etiologic diagnosis was compared to the total amount of alcohol consumed during a lifetime and the correlation between AUDIT and LDH was assessed. The alcohol consumption was evaluated both in units of alcohol, and by total kilograms of alcohol per kilogram of body weight. Result: Of the 139 included patients, 136 filled out LDH. 114 of these patients had valid LDH. There was an over-representation of non-valid forms among the patients who had not been interviewed. Among the 27 patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD), 10 had lower estimated alcohol intake than the expected threshold for advanced liver damage, however all had advanced liver fibrosis. Among the 80 patients with non-ALD, eleven patients had an estimated alcohol intake higher than the expected threshold for advanced liver damage. By comparing LDH and AUDIT, we found that LDH is more sensitive to detect alcohol related liver disease than AUDIT.