Prevalence and Variation of Clinically Recognized Inpatient Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome in the Veterans Health Administration.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

No prior study has evaluated the prevalence or variability of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) in general hospitals in the United States.

Methods

This retrospective study used secondary data from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to estimate the documented prevalence of clinically recognized AWS among patients engaged in VHA care who were hospitalized during fiscal year 2013. We describe variation in documented inpatient AWS by geographic region, hospital, admitting specialty, and inpatient diagnoses using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnosis and/or procedure codes recorded at hospital admission, transfer, or discharge.

Results

Among 469,082 eligible hospitalizations, the national prevalence of do

SUBMITTER: Steel TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7148193 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul/Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature