Structure of Mortality of Persons Hospitalised for Alcohol Use Disorders in the Czech Republic from 1994 to 2013.

BACKGROUND: The harmful use of alcohol causes almost 6% of deaths worldwide and is related to more than 200 diseases. The most frequent causes of death in people with alcohol use disorders are diseases of the gastro-intestinal tract and cancer. External causes are particularly common among men. These persons die prematurely in comparison with the general population. AIMS: To analyse the structure of the mortality of persons hospitalised for alcohol use disorders in 1994-2013 and to calculate these persons' potential years of life lost. METHODS: A database-linkage study of data from the National Registry of Hospitalised Patients and from the Deaths Information System was performed. In the National Registry of Hospitalised Patients, 204,807 hospitalisations of 90,376 persons with the primary diagnosis F10 were identified in the period 1994-2013. Of those, 25,815 people died. RESULTS: Almost 83% of those 25,815 patients were economically active. The most frequent causes of death in this group included liver diseases (18%), diseases of the circulatory system (15%), malignant neoplasms (7%), and disorders caused by the use of alcohol (3%). External causes (24%) most often involved random accidents (13%). Suicides were also high in numbers. The potential years of life lost (PYLL) indicator showed that 24.2 years were lost in one economically active person. CONCLUSION: Most persons who died were economically active. Liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases, tumours, and external causes were the most frequent causes of death. More than 24 years were lost in one economically active person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]