One in ten hospital patients dependent on alcohol

Findings suggest the country’s drink problem is far worse than had been assumed

Bottles of alcohol
(Image credit: Credit: Getty photos)

One in five people at hospital in the UK are drinking at harmful levels and one in ten are alcohol-dependent, according to new research.

The study by King's College London, which examined data from 124 earlier studies involving more than 1.6 million people, found that harmful alcohol use is ten times higher in hospital inpatients compared with the general UK population, and alcohol dependency is eight times higher.

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