Changes in the alcohol-specific disease burden during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: interrupted time series analyses
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Changes in the alcohol-specific disease burden during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: interrupted time series analyses. / Manthey, Jakob; Kilian, Carolin; Schäfer, Ingo; Wirth, Marielle; Schulte, Bernd.
In: EUR J PUBLIC HEALTH, Vol. 33, No. 4, 01.08.2023, p. 645-652.Research output: SCORING: Contribution to journal › SCORING: Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Changes in the alcohol-specific disease burden during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: interrupted time series analyses
AU - Manthey, Jakob
AU - Kilian, Carolin
AU - Schäfer, Ingo
AU - Wirth, Marielle
AU - Schulte, Bernd
N1 - © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association.
PY - 2023/8/1
Y1 - 2023/8/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been linked to changes in alcohol consumption, access to healthcare services and alcohol-attributable harm. In this contribution, we quantify changes in alcohol-specific mortality and hospitalizations at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 in Germany.METHODS: We obtained monthly counts of deaths and hospital discharges between January 2013 and December 2020 (n = 96 months). Alcohol-specific (International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision codes: F10.X; G31.2, G62.1, G72.1, I42.6, K29.2, K70.X, K85.2, K86.0, Q86.0, T51.X) diagnoses were further split into codes reflective of acute vs. chronic harm from alcohol consumption. To quantify the change in alcohol-specific deaths and hospital discharges, we performed sex-stratified interrupted time series analyses using generalized additive mixed models for the population aged 45-74. Immediate (step) and cumulative (slope) changes were considered.RESULTS: Following March 2020, we observed immediate increases in alcohol-specific mortality among women but not among men. Between the years of 2019 and 2020, we estimate that alcohol-specific mortality among women has increased by 10.8%. Hospital discharges were analyzed separately for acute and chronic conditions. The total number of hospital discharges fell by 21.4% and 25.1% for acute alcohol-specific conditions for women and men, respectively. The total number of hospital discharges for chronic alcohol-specific conditions fell by 7.4% and 8.1% for women and men, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: Increased consumption among people with heavy drinking patterns and reduced utilization of addiction-specific healthcare services during the pandemic might explain excess mortality. During times of public health crises, access to addiction-specific services needs to be ensured.
AB - BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been linked to changes in alcohol consumption, access to healthcare services and alcohol-attributable harm. In this contribution, we quantify changes in alcohol-specific mortality and hospitalizations at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 in Germany.METHODS: We obtained monthly counts of deaths and hospital discharges between January 2013 and December 2020 (n = 96 months). Alcohol-specific (International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision codes: F10.X; G31.2, G62.1, G72.1, I42.6, K29.2, K70.X, K85.2, K86.0, Q86.0, T51.X) diagnoses were further split into codes reflective of acute vs. chronic harm from alcohol consumption. To quantify the change in alcohol-specific deaths and hospital discharges, we performed sex-stratified interrupted time series analyses using generalized additive mixed models for the population aged 45-74. Immediate (step) and cumulative (slope) changes were considered.RESULTS: Following March 2020, we observed immediate increases in alcohol-specific mortality among women but not among men. Between the years of 2019 and 2020, we estimate that alcohol-specific mortality among women has increased by 10.8%. Hospital discharges were analyzed separately for acute and chronic conditions. The total number of hospital discharges fell by 21.4% and 25.1% for acute alcohol-specific conditions for women and men, respectively. The total number of hospital discharges for chronic alcohol-specific conditions fell by 7.4% and 8.1% for women and men, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: Increased consumption among people with heavy drinking patterns and reduced utilization of addiction-specific healthcare services during the pandemic might explain excess mortality. During times of public health crises, access to addiction-specific services needs to be ensured.
KW - Male
KW - Humans
KW - Female
KW - Pandemics
KW - COVID-19/epidemiology
KW - Interrupted Time Series Analysis
KW - Alcohol-Related Disorders
KW - Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology
KW - Chronic Disease
KW - Germany/epidemiology
KW - Cost of Illness
U2 - 10.1093/eurpub/ckad103
DO - 10.1093/eurpub/ckad103
M3 - SCORING: Journal article
C2 - 37365723
VL - 33
SP - 645
EP - 652
JO - EUR J PUBLIC HEALTH
JF - EUR J PUBLIC HEALTH
SN - 1101-1262
IS - 4
ER -