Alcohol misuse: tackling the UK epidemic - London

32
BMA Board of Science
attributable to alcohol j
– the alcohol -related death rate in the UK almost doubled from 6.9 to
12.9 per 100,000 population between 1991-2005 (see Figure 9), and the number of alcohol-related
deaths more than doubled from 4,144 in 1991 to 8,386 in 2005. 72
Death rates are much higher for
males than females and the gap between the sexes has widened in recent years. 72
In 2005, the male
death rate (17.9 deaths per 100,000 population) was more than twice the rate for females (8.3
deaths per 100,000 population) and males accounted for two-thirds of the total number of deaths. 72
“”
I had a patient, a few months ago, who had a bit too much to drink and while
visiting his mother‘s grave – lay down next to it and choked to death on his vomit!
BMA member
Figure 9 – alcohol-related death rates by sex, United Kingdom, 1991-2005
Age-standardised rate per 100,000 population
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Source: Office for National Statistics, General Register Office for Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (2006)
Alcohol misuse: tackling the UK epidemic
Year
Men
Women
All persons
j The ONS definition of alcohol-related deaths is based on the ICD-10 and includes those causes regarded as most directly due to
alcohol consumption: mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol (F10), alcoholic cardiomyopathy (I42.6), alcoholic liver
disease (K70), chronic hepatitis – not elsewhere specified (K73), fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver (K74), alcoholic induced chronic
pancreatitis (K86.0), alcoholic poisoning by and exposure to alcohol (X45). These data do not include deaths where alcohol is a
contributory cause (eg in road incidents, deaths from falls or accidents etc) and do not therefore account for the total number of
deaths attributable to alcohol in the UK.