The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on hospital admissions for alcohol-related liver disease and pancreatitis in Japan

Abstract

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there have been health concerns related to alcohol use and misuse. We aimed to examine the population-level change in cases of alcohol-related liver disease and pancreatitis that required admission during the COVID-19 epidemic by interrupted time series (ITS) analysis using claims data. We defined the period from April 2020, when the Japanese government declared a state of emergency, as the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic. This ITS analysis included 3,026,389 overall admissions and 10,242 admissions for alcohol-related liver disease or pancreatitis from 257 hospitals between July 2018 and June 2020. The rate of admissions per 1000 admissions during the COVID-19 epidemic period (April 2020–June 2020) was 1.2 times (rate ratio: 1.22, 95% confidence interval: 1.12–1.33) compared to the pre-epidemic period. Analyses stratified by sex revealed that the increases in admission rates of alcohol-related liver disease or pancreatitis for females were higher than for males during the COVID-19 epidemic period. The COVID-19 epidemic in Japan might associates an increase in hospital admissions for alcohol-related liver disease and pancreatitis. Our study could support the concern of alcohol consumption and health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19-associated liver injury: Clinical characteristics, pathophysiological mechanisms and treatment management

“…Mortality associated with ALD increased across age, race, and sex during the US epidemic [70] , [71] . According to statistics from 257 hospitals in Japan during the epidemic, the admission rate per 1,000 people admitted for ALD or pancreatitis was 1.22 times that in the preepidemic period [72] . Meanwhile, the increase in the admission rate has increased the risk of patients being exposed to SARS-CoV-2.…”

Covid-19 and alcohol associated liver disease

“…Similar trends were also observed in other countries outside the US. For example, hospitalizations for alcohol-associated liver disease and alcohol-related pancreatitis in Japan increased by 20% during the pandemic [27] . Studies from Canada and England also reported a near doubling of hospital admissions for AH after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic [28 , 29] .…”

“… Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease Burden Deutsch-Link et al. (2022) [27] ALD mortality Cross-sectional United States mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics From 2019 to 2020, ALD-related mortality increased 21% in males and 27% in females. Highest relative increases observed in those under age 45.…”

“… Deutsch-Link et al. (2022) [27] ALD mortality Cross-sectional study United States mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics From 2019–2020, the highest relative increase in ALD mortality was observed in American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian men, and American/Indian Alaska Native and Hispanic/Latina women. Women had a higher relative increase (27%) than men (21%).…”

Exploring the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on wellbeing across different styles of lockdown

“…Examination of personal circumstances suggested that differences arose based on whether participants had children in the home; having children in the home was associated with an increase in alcohol consumption (also seen in Acuff et al, 2022 ). Investigations of the effects of the pandemic on alcohol consumption in Japan are focused on alcohol-use disorders and suggest that there has been an increase in admissions to hospital for alcohol-related illness due to the COVID-19 pandemic ( Itoshima et al, 2021 ).…”