title: [Health demands due to acute alcoholism in the hospital of Sorgono 1980-1987].
abstract: In Italy, in the late 1970's, alcohol-related neoplasms represented 12% of deaths from neoplasms among men and 4.5% among women. The consumption of alcohol is responsible for a large number of psychiatric disorders, motor accidents, suicides and murders. The purpose of this research work is to describe the alcoholism in the "unità sanitaria locale" 10 of Sardinia. We studied the health demand for alcohol-related diseases (acute and chronic alcoholism, traumas in alcoholic people, alcoholic hepatopathies). Our research work has been carried out in the first aid post of the hospital of Sorgono, the only one in the whole "unità sanitaria locale", for the years 1980 to 1987. The long term trend has been studied by an exponential model y = exp (bx) The force of increase b is a valid measure of trend. We also calculated the 95 percent confidence intervals for b. We calculated the age-specific demand rates from acute alcoholism (for the years 1980 to 1987) for the whole USL. We used the indirect method of standardization to analyse the geographical distribution of cases. We calculated the Standardized Morbidity Ratio as SMR = d/(Pi Mi) * 100 and its confidence interval (95 percent) as SMR + 196 * (square root of d/Pi Mi) where d = cases in town population; pi = population in age group i in town population; Mi = rate in age group i in standard population. The standard rates are the age-specific rates for the whole "unità sanitaria locale". The health demand is much higher among males than among females (9 men against one woman). As far as the general population (+ 0.112 less than b less than + 0.288) and the males (+ 0.104 less than b less than + 0.283) are concerned we can recognize an increasing trend. Among women (-0.058 less than b less than 0.363) the increase is not significant. The age-specific distribution and the geographical distribution of health demand have been studied for the male population only. The age-distribution is bimodal having the first peak between 20 and 25 years and the second one between 50 and 65 years. This pattern is suggestive for the simultaneous presence of two different pathologies. In the town of Austis (209 less than SMR less than 589) the health demand is significantly higher than the health demand in the whole "unità sanitaria locale". The demand is significantly low in five towns (Desulo, Meana Sardo, Ovodda, Tornara, Gadoni).
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Uccheddu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marras
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Contu
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
vernacular_title: Domanda sanitaria per etilismo acuto nell'ospedale di Sorgono dal 1980 al 1987.