TY - JOUR
T1 - Alcohol-Specific Mortality in People With Epilepsy
T2 - Cohort Studies in Two Independent Population-Based Datasets
AU - Gorton, Hayley C.
AU - Webb, Roger T.
AU - Parisi, Rosa
AU - Carr, Matthew J.
AU - DelPozo-Banos, Marcos
AU - Moriarty, Kieran J.
AU - Pickrell, W. Owen
AU - John, Ann
AU - Ashcroft, Darren M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is partly based on data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink obtained under license from the MHRA. The data are provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support. This study also used anonymized data held in the SAIL system, which is part of the national e-health records infrastructure for Wales. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the provider of the ONS mortality data. HES and ONS data is subject to Crown copyright (2015) protection, re-used with the permission of The Health & Social Care Information Center, all rights reserved. The interpretation and conclusions contained in this study are those of the authors alone, and not necessarily those of the SAIL, UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), National Health Service (NHS), or the Department of Health. We acknowledge the contributing patients and practices to the CPRD GOLD and SAIL Databank who have allowed their data to be used for research purposes. Funding. This work was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care (Grant number: PSTRC-2016-003).
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Gorton, Webb, Parisi, Carr, DelPozo-Banos, Moriarty, Pickrell, John and Ashcroft.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1/21
Y1 - 2021/1/21
N2 - Objectives: The risk of dying by alcohol-specific causes in people with epilepsy has seldom been reported from population-based studies. We aimed to estimate the relative risk of alcohol-specific mortality in people with epilepsy, and the extent to which problematic alcohol use was previously identified in the patients' medical records.Method: We delineated cohort studies in two population-based datasets, the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD GOLD) in England (January 01, 2001–December 31, 2014) and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank in Wales (January 01, 2001–December 31, 2014), linked to hospitalization and mortality records. People with epilepsy were matched to up to 20 persons without epilepsy on gender, age (±2 years) and registered general practice. We identified alcohol-specific death from Office for National Statistics (ONS) records using specified ICD-10 codes. We further identified prescriptions, interventions and hospitalisations related to alcohol use.Results: In the CPRD GOLD, we identified 9,871 individuals in the incident epilepsy cohort and 185,800 in the comparison cohort and, in the SAIL Databank, these numbers were 5,569 and 110,021, respectively. We identified a five-fold increased risk of alcohol-specific mortality in people with epilepsy vs. those without the condition in our pooled estimate across the two datasets (deprivation-adjusted HR 4.85, 95%CI 3.46–6.79).Conclusions: People with epilepsy are at increased risk of dying by an alcohol-specific cause than those without the disorder. It is plausible that serious alcohol misuse could either contribute to the development of epilepsy or it could commence subsequent to epilepsy being diagnosed. Regardless of the direction of the association, it is important that the risk of dying as a consequence of alcohol misuse is accurately quantified in people affected by epilepsy. Systematically-applied, sensitive assessment of alcohol consumption by healthcare professionals, at opportunistic, clinical contacts, with rapid access to quality treatment services, should be mandatory and play a key role in reduction of health harms and mortality.
AB - Objectives: The risk of dying by alcohol-specific causes in people with epilepsy has seldom been reported from population-based studies. We aimed to estimate the relative risk of alcohol-specific mortality in people with epilepsy, and the extent to which problematic alcohol use was previously identified in the patients' medical records.Method: We delineated cohort studies in two population-based datasets, the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD GOLD) in England (January 01, 2001–December 31, 2014) and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank in Wales (January 01, 2001–December 31, 2014), linked to hospitalization and mortality records. People with epilepsy were matched to up to 20 persons without epilepsy on gender, age (±2 years) and registered general practice. We identified alcohol-specific death from Office for National Statistics (ONS) records using specified ICD-10 codes. We further identified prescriptions, interventions and hospitalisations related to alcohol use.Results: In the CPRD GOLD, we identified 9,871 individuals in the incident epilepsy cohort and 185,800 in the comparison cohort and, in the SAIL Databank, these numbers were 5,569 and 110,021, respectively. We identified a five-fold increased risk of alcohol-specific mortality in people with epilepsy vs. those without the condition in our pooled estimate across the two datasets (deprivation-adjusted HR 4.85, 95%CI 3.46–6.79).Conclusions: People with epilepsy are at increased risk of dying by an alcohol-specific cause than those without the disorder. It is plausible that serious alcohol misuse could either contribute to the development of epilepsy or it could commence subsequent to epilepsy being diagnosed. Regardless of the direction of the association, it is important that the risk of dying as a consequence of alcohol misuse is accurately quantified in people affected by epilepsy. Systematically-applied, sensitive assessment of alcohol consumption by healthcare professionals, at opportunistic, clinical contacts, with rapid access to quality treatment services, should be mandatory and play a key role in reduction of health harms and mortality.
KW - Epilepsy
KW - Alcohol
KW - Alcohol-specific
KW - Cohort
KW - Observational
KW - alcohol
KW - alcohol-specific
KW - epilepsy
KW - observational
KW - cohort
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100527845&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fneur.2020.623139
DO - 10.3389/fneur.2020.623139
M3 - Article
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Neurology
JF - Frontiers in Neurology
SN - 1664-2295
M1 - 623139
ER -