Alcohol Consumption Analysis Among Patients with Liver Disease in Punjab Shah Aiman1,*, Gupta Ramit2 1Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Adesh institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda (Punjab) 2Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Adesh institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda (Punjab) *Corresponding Author : Dr. Shah Aiman, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and ResearchBathinda, Phone : +91-9569404600, E-mail: shahhaiman@gmail.com
Online Published on 28 July, 2023. Abstract Introduction Alcohol consumption has been observed to be a leading contributing factor in liver damage all over the world. However, there are only a few studies to determine the correlation between patients with liver disease and alcohol consumption. Therefore, this study was planned to determine the prevalence of alcohol consumption among patients with liver disease in Punjab, and also to evaluate the risk factors and various medical problems associated with alcohol drinking. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients with liver disease in Punjab state of India. All participants answered the questionnaire in their local language, which led to the calculation of Alcohol Use Disorders Inventory Test (AUDIT) score for each patient. Based on this score, low-risk drinkers, (moderate-risk) hazardous drinkers, and (high-risk) harmful drinkers were defined as having AUDIT score of <8, between 8 to 15, and ≥16, respectively. Results A total of 100 participants completed the questionnaire. Based on this information, 70 (70%) participants were classified as alcohol drinkers. Among these, 4% were low-risk drinkers, 18% were hazardous drinkers, and 48% were harmful drinkers. Further investigation of the association between alcohol consumption and other baseline characteristics of patients with liver disease revealed that usually men <60 years old, living alone or under less family interaction, ones with history of any other drug abuse had significant association with higher risk of alcohol consumption. It was observed that 48% participants who were harmful consumers had higher risk of cirrhosis. In addition, it was observed that 94.3% alcohol consumers who had type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and 37.1% drinkers who were Hepatitis C positive had higher risk of cirrhosis. Conclusion Overall our analyses indicated that among the patients with liver disease in India, there was high rate of alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence. Alcohol consumption usually associated with men <60 years old, ones with history of any other drug abuse was significantly higher. Increased alcohol consumption not only increased the risk of cirrhosis, especially in those with previous history of Hepatitis C and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Top Keywords Alcohol Consumption, AUDIT. Top |