Clinic’s alcoholics traced

Press, 8 March 1984, Page 9

Clinic’s alcoholics traced

One' , hundred alcoholics treated at Sunnyside Hospital during the 1970 s are being traced to find out how well they and their families are coping a decade later.

Questionnaires have been sent throughout New Zealand to the randomly chosen group in what has been described as the longest study.of its type in New Zealand.

Dr Norman Walker, the physician in charge of the hospital’s Mahu Kennedy Clinic, said the study was l&king at the effectiveness

of treatment and mortality rates among about 630 alcoholics admitted to Sunnyside during the four years from 1972. The first part of the study done in 1976 had looked at recovery rates and influencing factors. Some of. those questions were repeated in the latest survey sent out to the random sample of 100 of the study group still known to be living. “It is hoped we will show that a good percentage of them have changed xpeir lifestyle and madeb’the

treatment programme worth while,” he said. The questionnaires also sought information about the former patients’ quality of life and how much support they had received from family doctors, church ministers, and others in the community. Dr Walker said the mortality part of the study was also starting to show some definite trends. About 80 members of the original group had died, mainly from cardiovascular disease, and that data were being compared with

national mortality rates. “Women (alcoholics) seem to have a higher mortality rate for the first year but after five years both the men and women come back to almost a normal death rate for their age,” he said.

It was the first time such a long-term look had been taken at the mortality rate among New Zealand alcoholics, he said. About one-third of the questionnaires had been returned, but Dr Walker said the hardest part would be ato get all the replies