A new study suggests alcohol-related health problems are posing a growing burden on Ontario emergency rooms, including a disproportionate spike in visits by women and young people.
The study, published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at patterns in alcohol-related ER visits in Ontario between 2003 and 2016.
Researchers looked at several databases of provincial records containing medical and demographic information for more than 15 million Ontario residents aged 10 to 105.
They found more than 765-thousand E-R visits for conditions associated with alcohol use over the 14-year period.
The study's lead author, Daniel Myran, says these findings only represent the ``tip of the iceberg'' of the damage caused by drinking.
The family physician and resident at Ottawa Hospital says while the majority of patients in alcohol-related E-R visits are men, data suggests that women have ``narrowed the gap.''
Over the study period, the rate of alcohol-related E-R visits by women rose by 86 per cent, compared to 53 per cent for men.
Sheryl Spithoff, an addiction medicine physician at Toronto's Women's College Hospital, says women are physiologically more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol, so it's unsurprising to see that they're disproportionately suffering health consequences.