[Application of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test in heads of the family].

The habit of alcohol ingestion was examined in major caretakers of extreme poverty families who live in a county of the southern area of Santiago, Chile. For this purpose we used the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) validated in Chile. This test allows the disrimination between normal and abnormal alcohol drinkers. In this study the prevalence for abnormal drinkers was 40.3% with a 46.2% of prevalence if the major caretaker was the male parent and a 3.3% of prevalence if the major caretaker was a female one. This prevalence was studied associated with the following variables: socioeconomic stratification index (CAS), education, occupation, number of family members and neighborhood district.