People who go to a hospital emergency department (ED) because of alcohol use have a greater risk of death, according to a study done in the Canadian province of Ontario. And the more times they go for this reason, the greater is their risk for death.
In Canada, there are more admissions to hospital for alcohol-related illnesses than there are for heart attacks. Heart disease is Canada’s second leading cause of death. Injuries related to alcohol use are estimated to cost Canadians about $14.6 billion yearly, with $3.3 billion in health care costs. In the world, alcohol is said to be the greatest risk factor for poor health among people aged 15 to 49.
The risks for death from alcohol use include accidental poisoning, suicide, trauma and diseases of the digestive system. (iStock)
Many causes of death related to alcohol
This particular study looked at the records of more than 25,000 people aged 16 or older who had at least two visits to hospital emergency departments in a 12-month period for mental and behavioural disorders that were related to alcohol. It did not include those admitted for other alcohol-related problems such as vehicle accidents.
Of those who were studied, it found two-thirds had two visits to emergency departments, 22 per cent had three to four, and 12 per cent had five or more. One in 20 of all of these were found to have died within a year of their last visit to emergency. And the risk of death doubled for those who have five or more visits. Most of the deaths involved accidental poisoning, suicide, trauma and diseases of the digestive system.
The study suggests intervention to help patients at risk of alcohol-related death. (iStock)
‘Critical opportunities…to reduce avoidable mortality’
“Our study shows a high mortality rate in relatively young, mostly urban, lower-income individuals with frequent alcohol-related ED visits,” said Dr. Paul Kurdyak, senior author and scientist at ICES and CAMH in a statement. “These visits should be seen as critical opportunities for intervention on a high-risk population to reduce avoidable mortality.”
The opportunities might include screening, brief intervention, treatment referrals, managed alcohol programs and case management, say the authors of this study.
ICES is a not-for-profit research institute that uses health information about the population to produce knowledge on many health case issues. CAMH stands for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. It is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto centred in Toronto but with 10 community locations in Ontario. It offers treatment, research, education, policy development and health promotion.
This study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Alcohol is the drug most commonly used by Canadians. (iStock)
Alcohol is the most common drug used by Canadians
The Canadian Centre on substance Use and Addiction reports that alcohol is the most common drug used by Canadians and is increasingly used by females. About 15 per cent of Canadians who drink consume more than what is recommended by Canada’s Low-risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines. The age group with the riskiest use of alcohol is those between 18 and 24. In 2014, alcohol was a factor in the deaths of 14,826 people and that represented 22 per cent of all deaths attributable to substance use. In 2017, the number of people hospitalized for reasons entirely related to alcohol was 13 time higher than for opioids.
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