Yaseen Wid, Kiss Alex, Chau Justin, Huang Qing, Wang Sping, Iacono Anita, Yang Joanna, Malikov Kamil, Hillmer Michael P, Gomes Tara, Redelmeier Donald A, Zipursky Jonathan S
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto.
Evaluative Clinical Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto.
NEJM Evid. 2025 Mar;4(3):EVIDoa2400093. doi: 10.1056/EVIDoa2400093. Epub 2025 Feb 25.
Alcohol sales increased at the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, while alcohol-related emergency department (ED) visits decreased. It is unknown whether these patterns of alcohol use persisted or led to delayed effects on health.
We conducted a cross-sectional time series analysis of alcohol sales and alcohol-related adverse events in Ontario, Canada. We obtained 6 years of alcohol sales data from the largest regional alcohol distributor. We obtained monthly counts of alcohol-related ED visits, hospital admissions, and toxicity deaths. We defined our exposure as the start of the Covid-19 pandemic (March 1, 2020). We used linear mixed models to compare mean monthly alcohol sales and adverse events during prepandemic and pandemic periods. We used univariate Poisson regression models to generate incident rate ratios for alcohol-related adverse events comparing the prepandemic (February 28, 2016, to February 29, 2020) and pandemic (March 1, 2020, to February 26, 2022) periods.
Alcohol sales increased, on average, by CA$43.5 million per month (95% confidence interval [CI], CA$26.1 million to CA$60.9 million; P<0.01) during the pandemic years compared with the prepandemic period. We observed a 7% increase (95% CI, 5 to 8) in the proportion of alcohol-related ED visits during the pandemic years, due to a modest decrease in alcohol-related ED visits and a larger decrease in all-cause ED visits. Overall, an average increase of 191 alcohol-related admissions occurred per month (95% CI, 101 to 282). We also observed an average increase of eight toxicity deaths per month (95% CI, 4 to 12).
Alcohol sales and alcohol-related adverse events increased during the Covid-19 pandemic.
在2019冠状病毒病（Covid-19）大流行开始时，酒精销量增加，而与酒精相关的急诊科就诊人数减少。目前尚不清楚这些饮酒模式是否持续存在或是否会对健康产生延迟影响。
我们对加拿大安大略省的酒精销售情况和与酒精相关的不良事件进行了横断面时间序列分析。我们从最大的地区酒精经销商处获取了6年的酒精销售数据。我们获取了每月与酒精相关的急诊科就诊、住院和中毒死亡人数。我们将暴露定义为Covid-19大流行开始（2020年3月1日）。我们使用线性混合模型比较大流行前和大流行期间的平均每月酒精销售量和不良事件。我们使用单变量泊松回归模型生成与酒精相关的不良事件的发病率比，比较大流行前（2016年2月28日至2020年2月29日）和大流行期间（2020年3月1日至2022年2月26日）。
与大流行前相比，大流行期间酒精销售量平均每月增加4350万加元（95%置信区间[CI]，2610万加元至6090万加元；P<0.01）。我们观察到，在大流行期间，与酒精相关的急诊科就诊比例增加了7%（95%CI，5%至8%），这是由于与酒精相关的急诊科就诊人数略有下降，而全因急诊科就诊人数下降幅度更大。总体而言，每月与酒精相关的住院人数平均增加191例（95%CI，101至282）。我们还观察到每月中毒死亡人数平均增加8例（95%CI，4至12）。
在Covid-19大流行期间，酒精销售量和与酒精相关的不良事件有所增加。
