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Prevalence of alcohol use disorders in mainland China: a systematic review
Author(s) -
Cheng Hui G.,
Deng Fei,
Xiong Wei,
Phillips Michael R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/add.12876
Subject(s) - medicine , alcohol use disorder , mainland china , population , epidemiology , meta analysis , demography , alcohol abuse , confidence interval , environmental health , china , alcohol , psychiatry , geography , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , sociology
Aims To identify studies about the prevalence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in mainland China, evaluate the quality of these studies and conduct a meta‐analysis of the prevalence of AUD in China's adult population and in population subgroups defined by sex, age and urban versus rural residency. Methods Relevant studies published prior to January 2014 were identified from the following databases: China Knowledge Resource Integrated (CNKI), Wanfang, Pubmed, EmBase and Web of Science. A 16‐item quality assessment inventory for epidemiological studies in mainland China was constructed to evaluate the methodological rigor of the studies. A total of 38 studies including 1 304 354 individuals were identified. Outcomes included current and life‐time prevalence of AUD, alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse. Results The pooled life‐time and current prevalence of alcohol dependence were 1.4% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.3, 1.5] and 1.5% (95% CI = 1.2, 1.9). For males, pooled estimates of the current prevalence of alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse and AUD were 4.4 (95% CI = 3.1, 5.7), 4.0 (95% CI = 2.2, 5.7) and 10.1% (95% CI = 4.7, 15.4), respectively; the corresponding values for females were all below 0.2, 0.1, and 0.1%. There was large between‐study heterogeneity in the prevalence measures that was associated with sample size, the use of key informants and the use of substitute respondents. The quality of included studies was generally low. Higher‐quality studies reported higher prevalence. Conclusions Alcohol use disorder is an urgent public health problem in China, especially among males. When using high‐quality studies, current and life‐time prevalence estimates of alcohol dependence in China measure 2.2% and 3.7%, respectively, approaching those of the Netherlands, United States and other western countries.