Health and Injury

Worldwide

• Alcohol consumption is an important risk factor for more than 60 different disorders (WHO, 2007).

• Alcohol is causally related to cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colorectum and female breast (Bann et al., 2007).

• The beneficial health effects of alcohol are controversial and are far outweighed by the detrimental effects of alcohol on disease and injury (Rehm et al., 2009).

• An estimated 3.8 percent of all global deaths and 4.6 percent of the global burden of disease are attributable to alcohol (Rehm et al., 2009).

• In high-income countries, alcohol is the second leading risk factor for burden of disease (6.7%) (WHO, 2009).

• Alcohol is responsible for approximately 20 percent of deaths due to motor vehicle accidents; 30 percent of deaths due to oesophageal cancer, liver cancer, epilepsy and homicide; and 50 percent of deaths due to liver cirrhosis (WHO, 2009).

• For healthy adults, drinking more than two standard drinks per day increases the risk of death from alcohol-related disease or injury to over 1 in 100 (National Health & Medical Research Council, 2009).

• Drinking four standard drinks on a single occasion more than doubles the relative risk of an injury in the six hours afterwards (National Health & Medical Research Council 2009).

New Zealand

• In New Zealand, estimates indicate that between 600 and 1,000 people die each year from alcohol-related causes (Connor et al., 2005).

• More than half of alcohol-related deaths are due to injuries, one-quarter to cancer and one-quarter to other chronic diseases (Connor et al., 2005).

• Nearly one-fifth of all deaths for males and one-tenth of all deaths for females aged between 20 and 24 are attributable to alcohol use (Law Commission, 2009, p72).

• Between 18 and 35 percent of injury-based emergency department presentations are estimated to be alcohol-related, rising to between 60 and 70 percent during the weekend (Jones et al., 2009; Humphrey et al., 2003).

• A recent study of falls in working adults (aged 25 to 60) found that approximately 20 percent of unintentional falls at home may be attributable to alcohol consumption (Kool et al., 2008).

• Alcohol is involved in half of the patients presenting with facial fractures (Lee and Snape, 2008).

• Approximately 45 percent of fire fatalities each year involve alcohol (Millar, 2005).

• Approximately one-third of public pool drownings involve alcohol (Water Safety New Zealand, 2010).

• In 2008, there were 10,290 primary alcohol diagnosis admissions to New Zealand hospitals.[1]

• Approximately 23,000 people are treated in the publicly-funded health system each year for alcohol or other drug addictions (NCAT, 2008).

• 14 percent of the population are predicted to meet the criteria for a substance use disorder at some time in their lives (Wells et al., 2007).

[1] Data provided by New Zealand Health Information Service July 2009.