Prevalence and mortality of heavy drinkers in a general medical hospital unit.
This study was performed in order to analyse the prevalence, clinical characteristics and mortality of heavy drinkers among hospitalized patients during a 2-year period. Chronic excessive alcohol consumption (daily intake >80 g of ethanol for males and >40 g for females) was found in 278 of 2913 hospital admissions and was strongly associated with the male sex (90.69%). Heavy drinkers were significantly younger than other admissions (15 and 10 years for men and women, respectively), but showed similar mortality rates to other admissions, despite a much earlier age at death (19.5 years for men and 22 years for women). There was a trend towards higher mortality rates among severe alcoholic women than severe alcoholic men and non-alcoholic women. Liver cirrhosis was the entity most frequently observed in the heavy drinkers, and was significantly more prevalent in alcoholic women.
Jarque-López
A
A
Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
González-Reimers
E
E
Rodríguez-Moreno
F
F
Santolaria-Fernández
F
F
López-Lirola
A
A
Ros-Vilamajo
R
R
Espinosa-Villarreal
J G
JG
Martínez-Riera
A
A
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology