TEST CAN DETECT HEAVY DRINKERS

Discovery raises concerns about privacy, Medical College researchers admit

Researchers who used hundreds of Milwaukee area drinkers as test subjects
say they have developed a battery of common, inexpensive tests that can
identify heavy drinkers with 98% accuracy -- for as long as a week after the
last drink.

The researchers readily admit the potential for invading privacy by improper
use of their discovery, the research for which was partially paid for by the
Technology Development Fund of the Wisconsin Department of Development.

"It could be abused, yes," said Andre Balla, an associate professor of
pathology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "That is one of the
concerns."

But the test -- which can be done for less than $50 -- could help identify
people with drinking problems and get them the help they need, said Balla
and James Harasymiw, a Big Bend psychologist who developed the test and
holds a patent on it.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin
in Wauwatosa and the College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. It was
published in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

For their study, the researchers located 426 heavy drinkers and 188 light
drinkers -- all men -- mostly by recruiting them through Milwaukee area
community organizations. The heavy drinkers came from detoxification
centers, churches and outpatient treatment facilities.

There were not enough women recruited to produce a valid sample, so all
women were dropped from the study.

Harasymiw said the test is a good way to determine whether people who are in
treatment for drinking are truthful about abstaining. He is working to
modify the test so it can be used with pregnant women to help prevent fetal
alcohol syndrome.

"The idea is to use it to benefit people," he said.

Volunteers from detoxification centers were given vouchers for food or gifts
for participating. Community organizations were paid for the volunteers they
recruited.

Light drinkers were recruited from four churches, support groups for
recovering alcoholics and drug abusers, a college campus, a golf outing and
a work setting.

Who's a Heavy Drinker?

A heavy drinker was defined as someone who consumed more than 700 ounces of
alcohol in the past year -- the equivalent of about four drinks a day.
However, the mean consumption among the Milwaukee heavy drinkers was more
than five times that amount.

The light drinkers consumed a mean of 39 ounces of alcohol, or about 80
drinks a year.

After identifying the heavy drinkers through interviews, the researchers ran
a battery of 40 tests on their blood samples. Eventually, they found that 10
of those tests, taken as a whole, could be used to develop a mathematical
model that would identify the heavy drinkers.

The 10 tests include HDL cholesterol, a white blood cell test, kidney and
liver function tests and hydration tests.

Individually, the tests can't accurately predict drinking habits. But taken
together, they were 98% accurate in identifying heavy drinkers and 95%
accurate in identifying light drinkers.

For a smaller group of heavy drinkers who had not consumed alcohol for a
period of one week to one month, the test still proved 88% accurate.

The test's accuracy was greater when it was used for heavy drinkers of lower
socioeconomic status than middle class heavy drinkers, for whom the test was
about 85% accurate.

That's largely due to the poorer nutrition and health habits of heavy
drinkers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, said Arthur Hartz, the
study's main author and a former professor of family medicine at the Medical
College of Wisconsin. He now is a professor of family medicine at the
University of Iowa.

In addition, there is some evidence that low-income heavy drinkers abuse
alcohol more than middle-class heavy drinkers, Hartz said.

In terms of accuracy, the test "blows away" other methods used to determine
whether someone has engaged in heavy drinking, Harasymiw said. The best test
now on the market has an accuracy range of 60% to 80%, he said.

Aside from any legal considerations, employers likely would have an interest
in using such a test, especially employers that are concerned about safety
and absenteeism issues, said Beth McFarland, vice president of staffing
services at ProStaff, a Milwaukee employment firm.