Objective: Myriad reasons, including stigma, may prevent patients from self-reporting harmful use of alcohol in Tanzania. Family members may be more forthright but might not know the extent of the patient's alcohol use or suffer alcohol-related stigma as well. Our study aims to compare the reporting of patient alcohol use by emergency department patients themselves and their family members in Tanzania in order to describe the potential use of family reports as a proxy for patient self-reports.
Method: We conducted a secondary descriptive analysis of a prospective cohort of adult patients seeking treatment for injury and their family members. We evaluated alcohol use behavior, alcohol-related consequences, and alcohol-related stigma reported by 231 patients and 231 family members (both majority male, ages 25-45 years), measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Perceived Alcohol Stigma (PAS) scale, and the Drinker Inventory of Consequences (DrInC). Alcohol use behavior concordance/discordance between patients and families was established, and alcohol use and perceived stigma were analyzed.
Results: More than 72% of patient-family pairs showed alcohol use (AUDIT) concordance. Receiver operating characteristic curve and regression analysis suggests family reports to be clinically relevant, significant, and potentially accurate markers of patient alcohol use (sensitivity: 95.10%, specificity: 69.77%). Findings support the existence of stigma toward alcohol in this context, with similar stigma levels of patients and family members.
Conclusions: Family-reported patient alcohol use may be an accurate proxy for patient self-reporting. Further research is needed into stigma toward alcohol that is culturally appropriate and adopted.