Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are some of the most severe disease outcomes of alcohol consumption, causing disability and reductions in functioning, as well as leading to an increased risk of death from diseases and injuries causally related to alcohol consumption. Furthermore, the impact of AUDs at the population level is important, due, in part, to the resulting health burdens and the high prevalence of AUDs among the general adult population. Indeed, the global prevalence of AUDs in 2012 was 4.1%. Despite the prevalence of AUDs and their resulting health burdens, there is little research on the impact of AUDs on cause-specific mortality. As such, the need exists for systematic population-level studies that evaluate the cause-specific risk of mortality for individuals with AUDs. Thus, I propose a study that utilizes the French National Hospital Discharge database for the years 2008 to 2014 (which contains more than 30 million unique cases) to: 1) characterize the French population with AUDs by socio-demographic variables and co-morbidities; 2) assess the effects of treatment of AUDs on the course of AUDs and co-morbidities; and 3) assess the disease course and cause-specific mortality risk for people with AUDs by age and sex. This project will be the largest study to date of the effects of AUDs on co-morbidities and mortality, and will help to establish the characteristics of people who receive treatment for AUDs. Furthermore, the results from this project will help future studies to evaluate the cost effectiveness of interventions aimed at treating and reducing the prevalence of AUDs, and will inform public health policy decisions regarding how to allocate resources for the treatment of AUDs.