title: Prevalence and mortality of heavy drinkers in a general medical hospital unit.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jarque-López
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: González-Reimers
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Moreno
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Santolaria-Fernández
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: López-Lirola
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ros-Vilamajo
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Espinosa-Villarreal
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martínez-Riera
mesh_terms: 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