Mortality and Life Expectancy of Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder in Specialized Ambulatory Care: A Retrospective Observational Study

Abstract

Introduction: Alcohol use disorder is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in society. The potential modifying effect of a specialized outpatient intervention on populations with this diagnosis has not been demonstrated in Portugal. The present study aimed to determine the mortality and average number of years of potential life loss of a population receiving specialized ambulatory care for alcohol use disorder and subsequently compare these results with the alcohol-attributable death data published by the Instituto para os Comportamentos Aditivos e as Dependências.

Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted on all patients receiving specialized ambulatory care for alcohol use disorder between January 2013 and December 2023. Included were those whose death occurred between January 2013 and April 2024. Mortality and the average number of years of potential life lost were calculated for this population. The sample mean was compared to the weighted national estimate through a non-parametric bootstrap method.

Results: From the 94 deaths identified among 1131 patients observed, a mortality rate of 8.3% and an average of 8.78 years of potential life lost per death were calculated, considering all possible causes of death. When compared to the available data up to 2021 (with an average of 11.9 years of potential life lost), there was a significant reduction of this metric among the population receiving specialized outpatient care.

Conclusion: The observed difference may reflect the impact of outpatient interventions and early referral to other timely medical care, preventing or delaying probable premature death. Regarding mortality, since no other studies of this kind are known at the national level, it was not possible to compare different interventions in this metric, highlighting the need for further research in these contexts.