Number of young adults with alcoholic liver disease quadruples

THE number of young adults who have developed alcoholic liver disease has almost quadrupled in just 14 years, new research has found.

And the mortality rate of those who have died in hospital from alcoholic liver disease (ALD) has increased by 188%, from 2.6 per 100,000 people aged 15 and over in 1995 to 7.5 per 100,000 in 2009.

One of the authors of the report, Dr Aiden McCormick said a situation had developed where there was a “massive industry based around alcohol yet none of the money is being put into harm reduction”.

“There should be some sort of levy on alcohol advertisements or off-licence sales to fund research for better treatment,” said Dr McCormick who is chairman of the Irish Society of Gastroenterology and consultant hepatologist/gastroenterologist at St Vincent’s University Hospital.

Dr McCormick and Dr Deirdre Mongan, research officer at the Health Research Board, found there were considerable increases in ALD rates across all age groups, but most significantly among the younger adults:

*15 to 34 years — 275% increase.

*35 to 49 years — 227% increase.

*50 to 64 years — 159% increase.

*Over 65s years — 145% increase.

“We’ve seen a massive increase in ALD which reflects what is happening in society and the changing patterns of drinking,” said Dr McCormick. “The death levels among the younger age group is fairly low, but has dramatically increased. We can also expect that mortality rates will increase in the older age groups as the cohort who were drinking heavily when younger get older.”

The research, which focused on trends in the occurrences of the disease, showed that there were 27,816 discharges with a diagnosis of ALD between 1995 and 2009. The rate of ALD discharges (per 100,000 adults) increased by 201%, from 28.3 in 1995 to 85.1 in 2009. Of all discharges, 9% died while still in hospital.

The results of this research will be presented tomorrow at the Irish Society of Gastroenterology Winter conference in Killeney Castle in Dun Laoghaire.

“There is now a higher mortality rate amongst those with ALD than with heart attacks, but there are very little resources to deal with it,” said Dr McCormick. “It’s a very serious public health problem, which is being addressed by various committees, but the hospital based care aspect isn’t being looked at. There should be systemised and centralised care which is how care for various cancers has improved. Treatment of Hepatitis C has dramatically improved because resources have been put into it and they are curing up to 70% of patients. Yet the treatment of ALD hasn’t changed at all.”