Death rates and causes of death in cohorts of serum hepatitis patients followed up for more than 20 years.
A cohort of 214 drug addicts with serum hepatitis and a cohort of 193 hepatitis patients without drug addiction were examined in respect of death rates, causes of death and a number of risk factors for reduced survival. The death rate was significantly higher among the drug addicts than among non-addicts. The annual mortality rate was 1.5% in the drug addict group and 0.7% in the non-addict group. The highest relative risk of death was 860 for female drug addicts in age group 15-24 compared to females of the same age in the general population. The most prevalent cause of death in the drug addict group was drug overdose (53%), whereas in the other group 66% died from various somatic diseases. Hepatitis or complications of viral hepatitis played no role as cause of death among the drug addicts, and infections as a whole were also responsible for very few deaths. For male drug addicts, imprisonment before admission and leaving hospital without the doctors' permission were risk factors for early death.
Gjeruldsen
S
S
Department of Infectious Diseases, Ullevål Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Abdelnoor
M
M
Opjordsmoen
S
S
Myrvang
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality*; D016019:Survival Analysis