ASSESSMENT OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONGCHRONIC LIVER DISEASE PATIENTS IN MANDALAY, MYANMAR

Abstract

Background: Alcohol drinking is one of the common addictive hazardous behaviours nowadays that would definitely cause consequent health system deteriorations, especially the hepatobiliary system - chronic liver diseases. This study was to find out the patterns of alcohol consumption, levels of alcohol screening, quality of life according to gender and age groups and associations between variables among the chronic liver disease patients in Mandalay, Myanmar. Methodology: A cross-sectional study, data collection was completed by face to face interviews and secondary data from medical records from total 280 chronic liver disease patients. The questionnaires consisted of structured parts, Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ). The collected data were analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics using Chi-square test. Results: More than 90% of male and 7.6% of female patients had drinking alcohol in their lifetime. The commonest types of alcohol consumed in the male patients were beer (69.2%) and spirit (57.9%). Among the male drinker patients in the last month, about 66.7% drank 21 to 30 days and 22.4% drank 51-100 grams and 26.9% drank more than 100-gram for average intake and 31.3% had 51-100 gram and 28.4% had more than 100-gram for intensity. Among the lifetime drinker patients, more than 30% of the cirrhosis Child A patients, more than 50% of cirrhosis Child B or cirrhosis Child C patients, 20 % and above of the hepatitis B or hepatitis C patients were still found to be alcohol dependents. Quality of life was lowest in females, age group 55-64 year, cirrhosis Child C grading. Conclusion and Recommendation: The study indicated that even in severe disease stage, there are still a considerably proportion of current drinkers. Beer and spirit are the most available types for the drinker patients. It is strongly recommended that public health policy, alcohol counselling, harms reduction programs, mental health support should be taken actions to control the drinking practices in chronic liver disease patients because of being high risks groups – the diseased population.