Alcohol consumption in the country and hospitalizations for acute alcohol pancreatitis and liver cirrhosis during a 20-year period.

AIMS: Between 1970 and 1989 the incidence of pancreatitis increased in Finland in association with increased alcohol consumption. During the1990s there was a temporary decrease in alcohol consumption. We examined the trends in the amount of alcohol consumed in Finland and the incidence of hospital admissions for acute alcoholic pancreatitis and liver cirrhosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The data on hospital admissions and annual alcohol consumption between 1987 and 2007 were obtained from the Finnish National Agency for Welfare and Health.

RESULTS: Alcohol consumption increased from 8.2 litres of ethanol per inhabitant per year in 1987 to 10.5 litres in 2007, but during the economic recession in the country there was a temporary decrease in alcohol consumption between 1992 and 1994, with the lowest consumption of 8.0 litres in 1994. The incidence of hospitalizations for acute alcoholic pancreatitis in the whole population increased significantly during the study period among both men (from 57 to 69/100,000/year) and women (from 7 to 12/100,000/year). However, there was a significant decrease in hospitalizations in 1996 and 1997 correlating with alcohol consumption three years earlier. The incidence of hospitalizations due to liver cirrhosis increased in the age groups over 45 years in both genders throughout the study period. A temporary decrease was observed in 1994, when alcohol consumption was at its lowest. Interestingly, there was a trend from pancreatitis to cirrhosis during the last six years, when the hospitalizations for acute pancreatitis decreased, although the hospitalizations for liver cirrhosis increased following increased alcohol consumption. During the study period the female-to-male ratio for liver cirrhosis was twice as high as for acute alcoholic pancreatitis, but the relative portion of females increased by 50% in both diagnoses.

CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to liver cirrhosis, the hospital admissions for which followed the national alcohol consumption, admissions for acute alcoholic pancreatitis ceased to show a connection with the national alcohol consumption during the past several years.