Alcohol consumption among hospital patients in Ouagadougou

The aim of this study was, in its first part, to assess alcohol consumption among patients admitted to the departments of the CHU-YO, to compare the performance of two (02) questionnaires, and to determine changes in mean corpuscular volume and the performance of macrocytosis in screening for chronic alcoholism. The second part involved investigating the socio-demographic factors associated with harmful alcohol consumption. Results: we interviewed 391 patients, comprising 224 men (57.29%) and 167 women (42.71%). 135 patients (34.53%) were alcohol consumers. According to WHO guidelines, 8 women (4.79%) consumed >= 140g of alcohol per week and 23 men (10.27%) had an average consumption of >= 210g per week. According to the AUDIT questionnaire, the prevalence of inappropriate alcohol consumption was 10.49%, compared with 8.18% according to the DETA questionnaire. Using the WHO guidelines as a reference, the sensitivity and specificity of the AUDIT questionnaire were 84% and 96% respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the DETA questionnaire were 64% and 96% respectively.