Black, Hispanic Veterans More Likely Than Whites to Have AUD Diagnosis Despite Similar Drinking

Black and Hispanic veterans are more likely to be given a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD) than White veterans despite similar levels of alcohol consumption, according to areport published today inAJP in Advance. The racial discrepancy in diagnosis was evident for both men and women but was greatest for Black men who in some cases had a greater than 100% chance of having a diagnosis of AUD than White male veterans.“The absence of other factors to explain this discrepancy strongly suggests the presence of racial and ethnic biases in the diagnosis of AUD by VA practitioners,” wrote Rachel Vickers-Smith, Ph.D., of the Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center at Veterans Integrated Service Netw ork 4 in Philadelphia and colleagues.The researchers examined the association between levels of alcohol consumption and diagnoses of AUD among 700,012 veterans enrolled in the Million Veteran Program, a longitudinal cohort study that began enrolling veterans in 2011. The sample included 638,204 men (74% identified as White, 19% as Black, and 7% as Hispanic) and 61,808 women (62% identified as White, 30% as Black, and 8% as Hispanic).Alcohol consumption was defined as an individual ’s maximum score on the consumption subscale of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C), a screen for unhealthy alcohol use. The AUDIT-C includes three questions:How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?How many standard drinks containing alcohol do you have on ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: alcohol use alcohol use disorder American Journal of Psychiatry AUD AUDIT-C bias black diagnosis Hispanic VA veterans white Source Type: research