Prevalence of Alcohol-Related Medical Problems among Excessive and Heavy-Drinking Women in a Romanian Emergency Hospital

Today alcohol consumption among women represents a global health problem by the social, medical and economic effects involved. Gender differences as to alcohol consumption refer both to number of people affected and different sociomedical pathology. An epidemiological study was initiated to evaluate the prevalence and types of alcohol-related medical affections developed by excessive and heavy-drinkers women hospitalised in an internal medicine service. The study was an epidemiological unicentric prospective qualitative and quantitative one. All adult women hospitalised at the Internal Medicine Department during one year were registered. Of the patients who admitted that they drank alcohol, 97 women were included in the study group; they declared they used to drink two or more drinks per day, viz. 8 or more drinks per week. The study group comprised women considered as excessive alcohol consumers. 69.1% were 41-69 years old, 58.8% had higher and secondary education and 72% lived in urban areas. 68 patients presented clinical symptoms of the alcoholic liver disease, 8.2% were diagnosed with alcoholic cardiomyopathy, 41.2% with at least one psychiatric affection. The general mortality from all causes in the study group was 17.5% and the complications of the liver disease represented the cause for death in 41% of total. The study covers a broad pathology, from gastroenterological to neuropsychiatric aspects, aiming an exhaustive presentation of alcohol-related medical problems with excessive and heavy-drinkers women. Further investigations should focus on the connections between consumption and certain diseases and determine significant independent risk factors with prognosis value and also on a more