TUESDAY, Sept. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Alcohol use disorder (AUD) hospitalizations increased from 1998 to 2016, while in-hospital mortality for patients hospitalized with AUD decreased, according to a research letter published online Sept. 21 in JAMA Network Open.
Jasvinder A. Singh, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., and John D. Cleveland, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, conducted a cross-sectional examination using data from the U.S. National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database from 1998 to 2016 to examine trends in AUD hospitalizations and associated in-hospital mortality.
Data were included for 5,590,952 patients with primary AUD hospitalizations; 1.9 percent died during hospitalization. The researchers observed a 3.5 percent increase in AUD hospitalizations, from 274,652 in 1998 to 284,275 in 2016; claims decreased until 2005 and then increased to 2015. Per 100,000 total NIS claims, there were decreases of 25 and 28 percent in the number of AUD hospitalization deaths and mortality rate, respectively. From 1998 to 2016, there was a decrease in in-hospital mortality for AUD hospitalizations by 25 percent compared with a 20 percent decrease for all other NIS claims.
“From 1998 to 2016 in the U.S., AUD hospitalizations increased slightly while in-hospital mortality for patients hospitalized with AUD decreased significantly,” the authors write. “A better understanding of what causes these time trends could help further improve AUD hospitalization outcomes and reduce mortality.”
One author disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical and other industries.
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