Alcohol and tobacco use and the diseases treated in general practice.

Objective: To characterize the use of alcohol and tobacco and correlate both to the diseases of outpatients in a general practice outpatient clinic. Method: The ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test) questionnaire was answered by 300 randomly chosen subjects assigned to different groups according to the diseases being treated at the Outpatient General and Teaching Clinic of the Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital das Clínicas of the University of São Paulo's School of Medicine (HC-FMUSP, in the Portuguese acronym), São Paulo, Brazil. The consumption of tobacco and alcohol was characterized and its correlation with the groups of diseases being treated was calculated using Chi-square and Pearson test statistics. Results: Compared to alcohol, tobacco use was more prevalent, more intense and showed more health-, social-, legal- and financial-related damage. Tobacco smoking presented a positive significant (p<0.0001) correlation with respiratory diseases. According to the questionnaire's criteria, few alcohol users would be referred to clinical interventions in comparison to smokers. Conclusion: Respiratory diseases and tobacco use were well correlated based on the ASSIST questionnaire. The preventive value of the questionnaire was more evident in relation to tobacco than alcohol consumption.