Alcohol - Alcohol-Related Chronic Liver Disease Hospital Discharges

Why Is This Important?

Excessive alcohol use is the most common cause of CLD. Other causes (e.g. acetaminophen use) are less common. CLD can develop over many years, in some cases 20-30 years, and data on hospitalizations can provide information on CLD risk at an earlier time point in the disease?s development than AR-CLD mortality. However CLD hospitalizations are not limited to alcohol-related conditions, and include all hospital stays where the primary diagnosis was determined to be CLD. Additionally, CLD hospitalizations measure number of hospital stays rather than individuals diagnosed with CLD (i.e. a person can be hospitalized more than once). The rate of CLD hospitalizations in 2016 (83.8 hospitalizations per 100,000) has increased 41.6% since 2010 (59.2 hospitalizations per 100,000). Women are at lower risk than men. Women who identify as Asian or Pacific Islander have the lowest rates whereas men who identify as American Indian have the highest rates.

Definition

Alcohol-related chronic liver disease (AR-CLD) is a progressive chronic disease caused by chronic alcohol abuse.

Data Sources

• New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
  (http://gps.unm.edu/)
• Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data, New Mexico Department of Health.

How the Measure is Calculated

Other Objectives

Substance Abuse Epidemiology Report Indicator

Available Services

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals should screen all adult patients and counsel those who drink too much to drink less. This is called alcohol screening and brief intervention (A-SBI). A-SBI can reduce how much alcohol a person drinks on an oc...

More Resources

The New Mexico Department of Health Substance Abuse Epidemiology Section has New Mexico-specific reports, resources and publications, available at: nmhealth.org/about/erd/ibeb/sap. CDC Alcohol Program has fact sheets, online tool kits, data and recently