Dudley Strategy for Tackling Health Inequalities 2010-15

Rate of Alcohol-related hospital admissions per 100,000 populationIn 2008/09 there were 4919 alcohol related harm hospital admissions to Dudleyhospital, of which 4543 were resident in Dudley and the remainder were nonresidents.An analysis of the Dudley residents by age and sex is given in Figure 6.Of the alcohol related harm hospital admissions for Dudley residents 2831 weremale and 1712 were female (62 and 38% respectively), and the proportion of alladmissions increased with increasing age for both men and women. The gapbetween men and women in terms of admissions was lowest in the under 35 agegroup.Figure 5Rate of alcohol-related admissions per 100,000 population (EASR), Dudley, West Midlands region andEngland20001800DudleyWest MidlandsEngland160014001200100080060040020002002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08Financial YearSource: UNIFYThe rate at which hospital admissions has increased in Dudley was the main reasonfor it being chosen as a partnership target to try and reduce the numbers of peoplebeing admitted to hospital and ultimately impact on reducing premature mortalityfrom alcohol consumption.By far the biggest burden of alcohol morbidity in Dudley is in white males in the 35 to54 year old age group. This is the group that has been identified for targetedinterventions to reduce their alcohol consumption, which in turn would reduce thenumber of hospital admissions and also impact on premature mortality. Only 6% ofthe total admissions were from ethnic minority groups, reflecting the percentage ofthese groups in the total population, but does not take account of the fact that someethnic groups are more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol so this figure may bemasking an inequality in access to services108