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This retrospective observational study was carried out by searching the database of the laboratory information system for identifying all requests for alcohol testing placed from emergency departments and intensive care units of the University Hospital of Verona between June 29th, 2012 and December 31st, 2018. The study population consisted of 7488 patients. The number of alcohol tests was more than double in concomitance with New Year’s Eve than in the rest of the year (7.6±6.1 vs 3.1±2.8 requests/day; P<0.001), whereas blood alcohol concentration was similar (1.55 vs 1.12 g/L; P=0.308). The risk of measuring alcohol concentrations >0.1 g/L and >1.0 g/L was 1.9-fold and 1.6-fold higher in concomitance with New Year’s Eve. In multivariate analysis, younger age, female sex and alcohol testing during New Year’s Eve remained significant predictors of alcohol concentrations >0.1 g/L and >1.0 g/L. The requests for alcohol testing were similar in concomitance with Christmas Eve and in other periods of the year, whilst number of requests (4.0±3.2 vs 2.8±2.5 requests/day; P<0.001) and concentration (1.37 vs 0.77 g/L; P<0.001) were higher during weekends than in other weekdays. Introduction Alcohol abuse is associated with a high burden of morbidity and mortality in the general population, paralleled by an increasing pattern of alcohol consumption in several Countries around the world.1 It is widely perceived, and somewhat demonstrated, that some social events are associated with heavier alcohol consumption and, consequently, with a higher number of alcohol-related problems.2-5 Data collection on hospital admission for alcohol-related problems is challenging, mainly for difficulties in collecting history on prior-day or prior-week drinking,6 but also because the different aspects of clinical assessment do not efficiently contribute to reliably mirror the blood alcohol concentration.7 Moreover, the lack of routine measurement of alcohol concentration may further contribute to amplify the epidemiological bias, since this type of laboratory testing is sometimes prescribed when the clinical picture is unclear, or when mandated by legal authorities.8 With the aforementioned limitations, the drinking patterns of some social communities, such as college students, suggests that heavy drinking may be particularly frequent in concomitance with special events and holidays (New Year’s Eve or birthdays, among others).4 Although recent data seems to confirm that alcohol consumption may be highly event-specific, thus suggesting to plan targeted intervention strategies aimed at reducing or preventing alcohol-related harmful events on a population level,9 other studies failed to show similar temporal patterns, except for weekend peaks.10 Therefore, this study was aimed to analyze the temporal trends of alcohol tests and relative results performed in patients admitted to a large University Hospital in Northern Italy. Materials and Methods This retrospective observational study was carried out with an electronic search in the database of the local laboratory information system (LIS) aimed at identifying all requests for alcohol testing placed from emergency departments (EDs) or intensive care units (ICUs) of the University Hospital of Verona, between June 29th, 2012 (i.e., the last searchable date in the database) and December 31st, 2018. The University Hospital of Verona comprises two large academic centers (Borgo Roma and Borgo Trento Hospitals), averaging ~1500 beds and serving an area with a population of approximately 400,000 inhabitants. Each hospital has ED and ICU; the facility is also a reference Trauma Center. Laboratory tests requests are always placed using a computerized physician order entry (Metafora Informatica Srl, Milan, Italy) and results are permanently stored in the LIS. Alcohol concentration is conventionally measured in lithium-heparin plasma, with an alcohol dehydrogenase assay, on Siemens Dimension Vista (Siemens Emergency Care Journal 2019; volume 15:8024 Correspondence: Giuseppe Lippi, Section of Clinical Biochemistry, University Hospital of Verona, Piazzale L.A. Scuro, 37134 Verona, Italy. E-mail: giuseppe.lippi@univr.it

Hospital admissions for alcohol-related problems in concomitance with weekends, New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve: Myth or reality?