Comparative performance of biomarkers of alcohol consumption in a population sample of working‐aged men in Russia: the Izhevsk Family Study. (5th July 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McDonald, Helen; Borinskya, Svetlana; Kiryanov, Nikolay; Gil, Artyom; Helander, Anders; Leon, David A.
• Is Part Of: Addiction. Volume 108:Number 9(2013:Sep.)
• Page Start: 1579
• Page End: 1589
• Publication Date: 2013-07-05
• Subjects: Alcoholism -- Periodicals; Drug addiction -- Periodicals; 616.86
• DOI: 10.1111/add.12251
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0965-2140

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="add12251-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Aims</title> <p>To assess the performance of a range of biomarkers of alcohol consumption in a heavy‐drinking population of working‐aged Russian men.</p> </sec> <sec id="add12251-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Design</title> <p>Cross‐sectional study of men originally sampled at random from a population register.</p> </sec> <sec id="add12251-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Setting</title> <p>Izhevsk, a Russian city with a population of 650 000 people.</p> </sec> <sec id="add12251-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Participants</title> <p>A total of 1023 men aged 27–59 years living in Izhevsk who took part in a health check examination in 2008–2009.</p> </sec> <sec id="add12251-sec-0005" sec-type="section"> <title>Measurements</title> <p>Self‐reported alcohol consumption, hazardous drinking behaviours, socio‐economic position, anthropometric measurements plus blood levels of alcohol biomarkers [carbohydrate‐deficient transferrin (CDT, gamma‐glutamyl transferase (GGT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and mean cell volume of erythrocytes (MCV)] and hepatitis B and C status.</p> </sec> <sec id="add12251-sec-0006" sec-type="section"> <title>Findings</title> <p>In the year before interview there was a high prevalence of high‐risk alcohol consumption indicated by consumption of non‐beverage alcohols (5%), problem drinking behaviours (4.4%) and alcohol consumption exceeding an average 40 g per day (12.6%). All biomarkers were associated strongly with total beverage alcohol consumption even after adjustment for confounders. CDT performed best as an alcohol biomarker, with a sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 71% for detecting an average consumption of more than 40 g per day versus less. For all biomarkers sensitivity was considerably lower than specificity. Hazardous drinking patterns <italic>per se</italic> were not well detected by any of the biomarkers, all with sensitivity below 60%.</p> </sec> <sec id="add12251-sec-0007" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>In a Russian population with high levels of alcohol consumption, carbohydrate‐deficient transferrin (CDT) might be the most sensitive and specific biomarker for detecting ethanol consumption above 40 g/day. A biomarker reflecting hazardous drinking patterns has yet to be established.</p> </sec> </abstract>