The Dispatch



February 2007
VOLUME V, NUMBER 26

Heavy Drinking Increases Risk of
Death among Women with Hep C

In a study recently published in the
February 2007 edition of Alcoholism:
Clinical and Experimental Research, it
was found that excessive use of alcohol
by women with hepatitis C (Hep C)
shorten their life span by almost a decade
when compared to women with the
disease who drank only moderately or
not at all. The authors, through a
contract with the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(NIAAA) conducted a study in which
they investigated the relationship
between drinking habits and mortality
rates among men and women who have
hepatitis C.
The researchers examined more
than 7, 00 0 U.S. death records. Alcohol
use was determined by viewing the death
records for alcohol-induced medical
conditions as either the underlying cause
or as one of the contributing causes of
death. Other results from this study
indicated that:

Women with hepatitis C viralinfections who drank heavily
squander their normal survival
advantage over men with the same
infection

The cumulative probability of death
before age 65 was much higher for
the Hep C infected heavy alcohol
users than non-users, at 0.91 versus
0.68 for men and 0.88 versus 0.47
for women, respectively

Based on the results of this study the
researchers concluded that, “alcohol
affects men and women with Hep C
differently, and that [this study]
provides further evidence that heavy
drinking contributes to Hep C related
disease progression and death.”