ABSTRACT
This chapter promotes discussion of certain problematic topics in the epidemiology of alcohol abuse. The size of the total population in a nation is readily ascertained from the national census, but the use of the total population figure can be profoundly misleading. The more appropriate figure is the total number of people who actually consume alcohol, but to determine what that value is it is necessary to estimate the number of non-drinkers. The principal method for ascertaining the distribution of alcohol consumption across a general population is by survey methods. Hospital morbidity data must as always reflect the structure of local health services and the serial filtration that occurs at each level of referral, together with variations in diagnostic criteria.
