Tuesday 19 March 2013

New figures reveal a huge increase in the number of hospital admissions for people under 30 with alcohol-related liver disease.

The research carried out by Balance, the North East Alcohol Office, looks at the number of alcohol-related liver disease hospital admissions in England between 2002 and 2012.

As well as a full England summary, the data is broken down by region, gender and age .

Key findings:

* 117% increase in alcohol-related liver disease hospital admissions for under 30’s in England since 2002. This figure is worse in certain areas, the north east has seen a 400% increase.

* 91% increase in alcohol-related liver disease hospital admissions for women in England since 2002. It’s a 114% increase in the Yorkshire and the Humber.

* 93% increase in alcohol-related liver disease hospital admissions for men in England since 2002. It’s a 152% increase in the East of England.

Responding to the research, Eric Appleby, Chief Executive of Alcohol Concern said:

“These figures are terrifying, we’re seeing an increase in alcohol-related liver disease across both sexes, in every age group, in every region of the country. It’s particularly sad to see the number of young people with this awful disease more than doubling.

“We have to start taking this seriously, if this was any other illness immediate action would be taken to halt this so we call on the Department of Health to outline what action it intends to take.”

“We have to get the message across that drinking too much, too often can cause huge health problems and we need to create an environment where alcohol isn’t cheaper than water and available on every corner.”

Source: AlcoholConcern.org.uk 19th March 2013