Patterns and trends in alcohol‐related hospitalizations in Victoria, Australia, 1987/88–1995/96

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine patterns and yearly trends in alcohol-related hospitalization rates during the period 1987/88-1995/96 for men and women living in metropolitan and rural/remote Victoria. Alcohol-related hospitalizations were extracted from the Victorian Inpatient Minimum Dataset (VMD) for the years 1987/88-1995/96 (public hospitals) and 1993/94-1995/96 (private hospitals), and adjusted by the appropriate aetiological fractions. Sex-specific age-adjusted rates we expressed per 10000 residents/year. During 1993/94-1995/96, alcohol-related hospitalizations comprised 1.0% of all Victorian hospitalizations (about 12000/year), with men accounting for over two-thirds of alcohol-related hospitalizations. Approximately half of the alcohol-related hospitalizations were for disease conditions and the other half for external cause (injury) conditions. About 80% of all alcohol-related hospitalizations were to public hospitals, with the exception of alcohol dependence (63% to private hospitals). Alcohol-related hospitalization rates were generally higher for people living in rural/remote areas compared to urban areas. During 1987/88-1995/96, the age-adjusted alcohol-related hospitalization rates in public hospitals did not change significantly for disease conditions (14.8-14.7 for men and 6.3-6.4 for women) or female external cause conditions (6.7-6.1), but decreased for external cause conditions (18.4-15.5). In private hospitals during 1993/94-1995/96, the age-adjusted alcohol-related hospitalization rates for disease conditions decreased (5.4-4.1 for men and 3.7-3.0 for women) but increased for external cause conditions (1.8-2.4 for men and 1.0-1.2 for women). These patterns and time-trends in Victorian alcohol-related hospitalizations reflect a combination of alcohol-related morbidity levels, hospital admission practices and patterns and levels of service provision. They suggest a potential need to focus on services and programmes in rural/remote Victoria.

Identification of alcohol involvement in injury‐related hospitalisations using routine data compared to medical record review

“…Using alcohol attributable fractions, Ridolfo and Stevenson 9 estimated that harmful/hazardous alcohol consumption contributed to 43,033 hospital separations in 1997/98 (total hospital separations in 1997/98 totalled 5,563,074, 10 accounting for less than 1% of total separations. Alcohol attributable fraction calculations for Victoria show similar results with an estimated that 1% of hospitalisations attributable to harmful alcohol use 11 . Estimates of alcohol involvement in hospital admissions from the US vary widely, with estimates ranging from 7 to 70% of general admitted patients 12 …”

Review of rural and regional alcohol research in Australia

“…6 Women living in rural or remote areas also had a higher rate of hospitalisations because of alcohol-related injury. 6 Alcohol-related emergency presentations for assault and violence within rural Victoria continue to increase faster than the Victorian average for the past three years (Fig. 1).…”

“…6 People within rural areas who drink at a medium/high-risk level report significantly more problems with mobility, pain/discomfort and anxiety/ depression than metropolitan counterparts. 27 Those drinking at very-high-risk levels were reported to experience lowered health outcomes in relation to self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression compared with people in metropolitan areas.…”

“…6,19 Up to 24.7% of men living in rural or remote areas experience hospitalisations because of alcohol-related disease (such as cirrhosis of the liver) and alcohol-related injury (such as road injuries) as compared with 17.6% of men living in metropolitan areas. 6 Women living in rural or remote areas also had a higher rate of hospitalisations because of alcohol-related injury. 6 Alcohol-related emergency presentations for assault and violence within rural Victoria continue to increase faster than the Victorian average for the past three years (Fig.…”

The adverse consequences of drinking in a sample of Australian adults

“…We used the GenACIS (Gender, Alcohol and Culture: an International Study) survey instrument that has been administered to around 40 countries. In contrast to other countries, survey data have only rarely been used to examine the prevalence of the adverse consequences of drinking among Australian drinkers, with most work in Australia focused on administrative data on outcomes such as hospitalizations and deaths (e.g., Jonas, Dietze, Rumbold, Hanlin, Cvetkovski, & Laslett, 1999;Hanlin, Jonas, Laslett, Dietze, Rumbold, & Cvetkovski, 2000). A previous report on the social location of drinking in the GenACIS sample has shown that risky patterns of drinking such as consuming six or more Australian Standard Drinks (ASD, 10 g pure alcohol) on any one occasion (hereafter, Risky Single Occasion Drinking, RSOD) were generally more prevalent among men than women (Matthews, 2008).…”