Alcohol intoxication requiring hospital admission in children and adolescents: retrospective analysis at the University Children's Hospital in the Slovak Republic.

Background: Few epidemiological studies have investigated the problem of children and adolescents taken to hospital with acute alcohol intoxication.

Methods: We reviewed the medical records of children and adolescents aged
Results: 537 patients (273 boys and 264 girls) were admitted to the hospital with intentional acute alcohol intoxication (1.5% of all admissions and 34.2% of all intoxications) between 1996 and 2005. The average age of the patients with alcohol intoxication presenting to hospital was 15.1 +/- 1.7 and the youngest were 9-year-old children. The proportion of children admitted with alcohol intoxication increased every year (R(2) = 0.935) (p < 0.001). The average blood alcohol concentration was 1.98 +/- 0.57 g/L, and it increased in 2001-2005 in relation to the previous 5 years (p < 0.001). The highest estimated alcohol concentration (4.39 g/L) was found in the blood of a 17-year-old boy. The mean poisoning severity score was 1.53 +/- 0.61 and had increased in line with blood alcohol concentration for the years 2001-2005 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: The results of this analysis emphasize the severity of underage alcohol consumption by young people in the Slovak Republic. Measures are needed to decrease alcohol abuse in children and adolescents.