Reductions in alcohol-related liver harm stopped when COVID-19 hit, study suggests
Both men and women recorded a sharp rise in presentations 'likely due to the pandemic lockdowns', say Aussie researchers.
A trend of declining hospital admissions for alcohol-related liver disease during the 2010s abruptly stopped when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Australian researchers say.
The researchers used data from more than 130,000 hospital admissions when the primary diagnosis was identified as alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) between 1993 and 2020.
They found that admission rates grew steadily for men and women from the 1990s to around 2007 and continued to increase gradually for women.
But men, who comprised 73% of admissions, experienced sharp declines after 2012 — from around 50 annual presentations per 100,000 people to around 30.Â
