Cost and Health Outcomes of Risky Drinking in an HMO

众所周知，过度饮酒会对健康产生不利影响，并增加医疗保健费用。对于低水平饮酒对健康、卫生保健服务的使用和卫生保健费用的潜在影响，人们所知甚少。特别是，人们对饮酒超过建议限度的影响知之甚少，但还不足以达到酒精依赖的标准。这一群体的人有时被称为危险（或危险）饮酒者，因为他们的饮酒量和频率正在导致或可能导致问题，但他们不被认为是医学上的依赖。就其数量而言，这些饮酒者构成了社会酒精问题的最大比例。本研究考察了大型管理医疗系统中初级保健患者的危险饮酒与健康结果、医疗保健利用和成本之间的关系。这项研究将为有关酒精在健康状况、卫生保健服务使用和卫生保健费用方面的作用的研究提供信息。此外，本研究将通过单独分析治疗酒精消费不良医疗后果的服务、酒精滥用和依赖治疗、其他医疗护理（与酒精消费无关）和预防性服务使用，详细说明高风险饮酒对服务使用的影响。研究问题将使用来自多个数据来源的数据来解决，包括来自一项筛选初级保健患者饮酒情况的大型研究的数据。具体目的是：(1)比较五年内高危饮酒者与轻度至中度饮酒者的死亡率和健康状况；(2)比较五年期间高风险和轻度至中度饮酒者治疗酒精消费不良后果的服务、酒精滥用和依赖治疗服务、其他医疗服务和预防服务的使用情况。(3)比较五年期间高风险和轻度至中度饮酒者的医疗保健费用模式。

Excessive alcohol consumption is known to adversely affect health and to increase health care costs. Less is known about the potential impact of lower levels of drinking on health, the use of health care services, and health care costs. In particular, little is known about the impact of drinking that exceeds recommended limits, but is not sufficient to meet criteria for alcohol dependence. People in this group are sometimes referred to as hazardous (or risky) drinkers because their quantity and frequency of drinking is causing, or is likely to cause, problems but they aren't considered medically dependent. By the weight of their numbers, these drinkers constitute the largest proportion of society's alcohol problem. This study examines the relationship between risky drinking and health outcomes, health care utilization, and costs among primary care patients in a large managed care system. The study will inform research on the role of alcohol in health status, use of health care services, health care costs. In addition, this study will provide a detailed picture of the impact of risky drinking on the use of services by separately analyzing services to treat the adverse medical consequences of alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse and dependence treatment, other medical care (not related to alcohol consumption), and preventive service use. The research questions will be addressed using data from several data sources including data from a large study that screened primary care patients about their alcohol consumption. The specific aims are: (1) to compare mortality and health status of risky drinkers with light-to-moderate drinkers over a five-year period; (2) to compare use of services to treat the adverse consequences of alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse and dependence treatment services, other medical services, and preventive services for risky and light-to-moderate drinkers over a five-year period (3) to compare patterns of health care cost for risky and light-to- moderate drinkers over a five-year period.