Impact of Public Health Policies on Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease in Latin America: An Ecological Multinational Study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is the leading cause of liver-related mortality in Latin America, yet the impact of public health policies (PHP) on liver disease is unknown. We aimed to assess the association between alcohol PHP and deaths due to ALD in Latin American countries. APPROACH AND RESULTS: We performed an ecological multinational study including 20 countries in Latin America (628,466,088 inhabitants). We obtained country-level sociodemographic information from the World Bank Open Data source. Alcohol-related PHP data for countries were obtained from the World Health Organization Global Information System of Alcohol and Health. We constructed generalized linear models to assess the association between the number of PHP (in 2010) and health outcomes (in 2016). In Latin America, the prevalence of obesity was 27% and 26.1% among male and female populations, respectively. The estimated alcohol per capita consumption among the population at 15 years old or older was 6.8 L of pure alcohol (5.6 recorded and 1.2 unrecorded). The overall prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUD) was 4.9%. ALD was the main cause of cirrhosis in 64.7% of male and 40.0% of female populations. A total of 19 (95%) countries have at least one alcohol-related PHP on alcohol. The most frequent PHP were limiting drinking age (95%), tax regulations (90%), drunk-driving policies and countermeasures (90%), and government monitoring systems and community support (90%). A higher number of PHP was associated with a lower ALD mortality (PR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.61-0.93; P = 0.009), lower AUD prevalence (PR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.65-0.99; P = 0.045), and lower alcohol-attributable road traffic deaths (PR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.65-1.00; P = 0.051). CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates that in Latin America, countries with higher number of PHP have lower mortality due to ALD, lower prevalence of AUD, and lower alcohol-attributable road traffic mortality.

Developing multicenter consortia in liver disease in Latin America: Challenges and opportunities.

The development of consortia has been useful for exploring challenging scenarios and uncharted territories in liver disease treatments. Several consortia already developed in the United States and Europe have become key factors in patient care decision-making processes and medical education, and they have also impacted policy makers' decisions. In Latin America, the situation is different. As a result of a combination of different factors, our region has not been able to develop networking advantages in research and education in liver diseases. Thus far, most of the initial experiences focused on the development of collaborative groups established to investigate a particular topic, which were dissolved once the questions were answered. It is the aim of this review to describe those difficulties we confront in developing multicenter liver consortia in Latin America, to identify those challenges we face, and also to describe the opportunities we have for improvement. Liver Transplantation 23 1210-1215 2017 AASLD.

Predicting early discharge from hospital after liver transplantation (ERDALT) at a single center: a new model.

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE: Limited information related to Liver Transplantation (LT) costs in South America exists. Additionally, costs analysis from developed countries may not provide comparable models for those in emerging economies. We sought to evaluate a predictive model of Early Discharge from Hospital after LT (ERDALT = length of hospital stay ≤ 8 days). A predictive model was assessed based on the odds ratios (OR) from a multivariate regression analysis in a cohort of consecutively transplanted adult patients in a single center from Argentina and internally validated with bootstrapping technique. RESULTS: ERDALT was applicable in 34 of 289 patients (11.8%). Variables independently associated with ERDALT were MELD exception points OR 1.9 (P = 0.04), surgery time < 4 h OR 3.8 (P = 0.013), < 5 units of blood products consumption (BPC) OR 3.5 (P = 0.001) and early weaning from mechanical intubation OR 6.3 (P = 0.006). Points in the predictive scoring model were allocated as follows: MELD exception points (absence = 0 points, presence = 1 point), surgery time < 4 h (0-2 points), < 5 units of BPC (0-2 points), and early weaning (0-3 points). Final scores ranged from 0 to 8 points with a c-statistic of 0.83 (95% CI 0.77-0.90; P < 0.0001). Transplant costs were significantly lower in patients with ERDALT (median $23,078 vs. $28,986; P < 0.0001). Neither lower patient and graft survival, nor higher rates of short-term re-hospitalization and acute rejection events after discharge were observed in patients with ERDALT. In conclusion, the ERDALT score identifies patients suitable for early discharge with excellent outcomes after transplantation. This score may provide applicable models particularly for emerging economies.