Alcohol intoxication requiring hospital admission in children and adolescents: retrospective analysis at the University Children's Hospital in the Slovak Republic.

BACKGROUND

Few epidemiological studies have investigated the problem of children and adolescents taken to hospital with acute alcohol intoxication.

METHODS

We reviewed the medical records of children and adolescents aged <or= 18 years hospitalized with alcohol intoxication alone in the University Children's Hospital in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, during the years 1996-2005 and compared their characteristics between the first and the second 5-year time periods.

RESULTS

537 patients (273 boys and 264 girls) were admitted to the hospital with intentional acute alcohol intoxication (1.5% of all admissions and 34.2% of all intoxications) between 1996 and 2005. The average age of the patients with alcohol intoxication presenting to hospital was 15.1 +/- 1.7 and the youngest were 9-year-old children. The proportion of children admitted with alcohol intoxication increased every year (R(2) = 0.935) (p < 0.001). The average blood alcohol concentration was 1.98 +/- 0.57 g/L, and it increased in 2001-2005 in relation to the previous 5 years (p < 0.001). The highest estimated alcohol concentration (4.39 g/L) was found in the blood of a 17-year-old boy. The mean poisoning severity score was 1.53 +/- 0.61 and had increased in line with blood alcohol concentration for the years 2001-2005 (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this analysis emphasize the severity of underage alcohol consumption by young people in the Slovak Republic. Measures are needed to decrease alcohol abuse in children and adolescents.