Alcoholic Liver Disease among Patients Admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine of a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Alcoholic liver diseases comprise a spectrum of liver diseases including fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis. Diagnosis at advanced stages is frequent for this condition and data regarding the prevalence of such patients at early stages are limited. The aim of this study is to find out the prevalence of alcoholic liver disease among patients admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine of a tertiary care centre. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 538 patients admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine of a tertiary care centre in Nepal between 3rd November, 2021 and 22nd February, 2022 after receiving ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee of the hospital (Reference number: 006-078/079). Convenience sampling was done. Data were collected and entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 24.0. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data along with mean and standard deviation for continuous data. Results: Among 538 patients, alcoholic liver disease was seen in 42 (7.80%) (5.53-10.07 at 95% Confidence Interval). The mean age of the patients was 53.85±10.88 years. Among these patients 25 (59.52%) were males and 17 (40.47%) of them were females. Conclusions: Our study showed that the prevalence of alcoholic liver disease was lower as compared to similarly reported literature.

Keywords

• alcoholic liver diseases; jaundice; liver function test; Nepal.