Drinking themselves sick ... boozing teens crowd hospitals Date: June 10 2008
YOUNG Australians are drinking themselves sick in unprecedented numbers, with new research showing a surge in hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions since 1999.
In findings that will add to public alarm about teenage drinking, researchers have found that many more youths are ending up in hospital due to alcohol abuse than previous studies might have suggested.
The latest study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, used data from Victorian hospital emergency rooms and compared it with other research that relied on people reporting how much they drink.
The emergency room data showed that between 1999-2000 and 2005-06, there were "rapid increases in alcohol presentation rates" in people aged between 16 and 24. Their symptoms included alcohol dependence, mental and behavioural disorder due to alcohol, alcohol poisoning, alcoholic gastritis and alcoholic liver cirrhosis.
The most alarming increases occurred among women aged 18 to 24, with admissions more than doubling to 14.6 per 10,000 people, from about six per 10,000.
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