A descriptive comparison of alcohol-related presentations at a large urban hospital center from 1902 to 2009

Although alcohol use has long been a significant cause of hospital presentations, little is published regarding the long-term demographic changes that have occurred at a single hospital site. To address this deficit, we prospectively studied all acute alcohol-related presentations to Bellevue Hospital Center (New York, NY) and compared this contemporary data set with one from the same institution from 1902 to 1935. We prospectively identified all patients presenting to the emergency department because of acute alcohol use over an 8-week period in 2009. We described the basic attributes of patients presenting currently because of alcohol and compared these data to those previously described between 1902 and 1935. We also compared our census data with contemporaneous data from all patients presenting to this hospital site. During the study period, 560 patients presented because of acute alcohol use which extrapolated to an estimated 3,800 patients over the calendar year. This compares to 7,600 presentations recorded annually early in the twentieth century. Twelve percent of patients in 2009 were female as compared to 18 % of patients between 1934 and 1935. Patients with alcohol-related presentations in 2009 were more likely to be admitted than contemporaneous patients without an alcohol-related presentation (30 vs. 19 % admitted; p < 0.001). Since first measured 110 years ago at one large New York City hospital, alcohol-related presentations remain common representing 5 % of all emergency department visits. This demonstrates alcoholism's continuing toll on society's limited medical resources and on public health as a whole.