Provisional figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) show that in 2012, nearly half of liver disease admissions to hospitals in England were for alcoholic liver disease (47.7%, or 16,510 out of 34,650), and approximately 1 in 8 of these resulted in a hospital death (12.3%, or 2,030 out of 16,510).
These findings are part of a special topic on liver disease presented as part of the monthly provisional Hospital Episode Statistics publication, which shows data on hospital admissions for liver disease broken down by patient demographics and type of liver disease.
Today’s report also shows that from January 2012 to December 2012:
- Men accounted for over two thirds of admissions for alcoholic liver disease (67.9%, or 11,210 out of 16,510).
- The rate of admissions for alcoholic liver disease was highest in the North West region (3,610 or 51.2 per 100,000 of the population). The North East region had the highest rate of admissions for all liver disease (2,400 or 92.5 per 100,000 of the population).
- Compared to last year’s figures, the North West saw the greatest increase in admission rates for all liver disease (a rise of about 700 admissions to 6,140, or a rate increase of 77.2 to 87.1 per 100,000). For England, there was a rate increase from 64.2 to 65.2 per 100,000.
Figures on liver disease in general show that there has been a 1.6% (560) increase in admissions with a primary diagnosis of liver diseases since 2011. In 2012, 1 in 11 hospital admissions for liver disease in England resulted in a hospital death, a significantly higher rate than the total admissions/hospital death ratio for the year (1 in 72).