Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. May 27, 2020; 12(5): 230-238
Published online May 27, 2020. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v12.i5.230
Epidemiological profile of alcoholic liver disease hospital admissions in a Latin American country over a 10-year period
Andre Castro Lyra, Lorena Mascarenhas Carneiro de Almeida, Yukari Figueroa Mise, Lourianne Nascimento Cavalcante
Andre Castro Lyra, Lorena Mascarenhas Carneiro de Almeida, Lourianne Nascimento Cavalcante, Gastro-Hepatology Service, Hospital São Rafael, Salvador, Bahia 41253-190, Brazil
Andre Castro Lyra, Lourianne Nascimento Cavalcante, Gastro-Hepatology Service, Hospital Universitario Prof. Edgard Santos, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia 40301-155, Brazil
Yukari Figueroa Mise, Instituto de Saúde Coletiva-Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia 40110-040, Brazil
Author contributions: Lyra AC developed the idea, mentored and reviewed the study; de Almeida LMC and Mise YF were responsible for collecting, analyzing the data and writing the manuscript; Cavalcante LN analyzed the data and reviewed the study.
Institutional review board statement: This study was performed according to Resolution 466/2012 of the National Health Council. Since this study was conducted using a secondary database in the public domain, which is available on the internet, it was not necessary to use a written consent form or to obtain approval from the Ethics and Research Committee.
Informed consent statement: This study was performed according to Resolution 466/2012 of the National Health Council. Since this study was conducted using a secondary database in the public domain, which is available on the internet, it was not necessary to use a written consent form or to obtain approval from the Ethics and Research Committee. None of the authors have conflicts of interest.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Andre Castro Lyra, Associate Professor, Medicine-Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Gastro-Hepatology Service, University Hospital, Federal University of Bahia and Gastro-Hepatology Service, Hospital São Rafael, CPPHO, R. Dr. Augusto Viana, s/n - Canela, Salvador, Bahia 40301-155, Brazil. aclyra@live.com
Received: December 6, 2019
Peer-review started: December 6, 2019
First decision: December 26, 2019
Revised: February 29, 2020
Accepted: April 4, 2020
Article in press: April 4, 2020
Published online: May 27, 2020
Processing time: 173 Days and 9.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a major cause of chronic liver disease worldwide.

AIM

To describe the epidemiological profile and mortality rates of patients with ALD admitted to public hospitals in different regions of Brazil from 2006 to 2015.

METHODS

This is a descriptive study that evaluated aggregate data from the five Brazilian geographic regions.

RESULTS

A total of 160093 public hospitalizations for ALD were registered. There was a 34.07% increase in the total number of admissions over 10 years, from 12879 in 2006 to 17267 in 2015. The region with the highest proportion (49.01%) of ALD hospitalizations was Southeast (n = 78463). The North region had the lowest absolute number of patients throughout the study period, corresponding to 3.9% of the total (n = 6242). There was a 24.72% increase in the total number of ALD deaths between 2006 and 2015. We found that the age group between 50 and 59 years had the highest proportion of both hospitalizations and deaths: 28.94% (n = 46329) of total hospital admissions and 29.43% (n = 28864) of all deaths. Men were more frequently hospitalized than women and had the highest proportions of deaths in all regions. Mortality coefficient rates increased over the years, and simple linear regression analysis indicated a statistically significant upward trend in this mortality (R² = 0.744).

CONCLUSION

Our study provides a landscape of the epidemiological profile of public hospital admissions due to ALD in Brazil. We detected an increase in the total number of admissions and deaths due to ALD over 10 years.

Keywords: Alcoholic liver disease; Epidemiology; Mortality; Liver; Cirrhosis; Hospital admissions

Core tip: Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. Many patients with ALD present for medical care after they have developed advanced liver disease and its complications. It is important to know the epidemiology of ALD within a specific region/country to better understand which resources might be necessary to improve management. This study provides a landscape of the epidemiological profile of hospital admissions due to ALD in different regions of Brazil from 2006 to 2015, including the mortality rates and admissions according to age range. We detected a 34.07% increase in the total number of hospital admissions for ALD and a 24.72% increase in the total number of ALD deaths over these 10 years. Therefore, this study signals the need to be alert to this liver illness and to possibly revisit policies related to alcohol marketing, sales, and consumption.