Death, Disease and Disability Due to Alcohol in NZ

New research released by the Alcohol Liquor Advisory Council (ALAC), estimates that about 1037 deaths in NZ in 2000 were attributable to alcohol consumption (3.9 percent of all deaths). Alcohol consumption was also estimated to prevent 981 deaths in the same year, resulting in a net loss of 56 lives. However, the deaths resulting from alcohol occur mostly in much younger people than those who receive the benefits. Some of the major messages emerging from this research are:

There are no health benefits of drinking alcohol before middle age. Most of the benefits of alcohol consumption accrue in the elderly. The benefits are associated with regular low-volume intake, and risks associated with heavy drinking persist into old age. (The research shows a small amount of alcohol can help prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and complications of gallbladder disease.)

The pattern of drinking is very important in determining the health effects of alcohol consumption. It is increasingly clear that for drinkers consuming the same average volume of alcohol, the pattern of drinking has a major influence on both benefits and harms. Moving towards patterns of drinking that are safer in terms of physical health outcomes is also likely to reduce the unmeasured social consequences of alcohol consumption.

Injury is responsible for half of all alcohol-attributable deaths and almost three-quarters of the years of life lost due to alcohol. Changes in the pattern as well as the context of much alcohol consumption will be needed to substantially reduce the burden of injury due to alcohol. Even amongst low volume regular drinkers, there are increased risks of injury associated with alcohol. Injury was a major contributor to alcohol-related mortality, being responsible for 51 percent of deaths (532 deaths) and 72 percent of years of life lost. Most alcohol-related deaths before middle age were due to injury. Cancers accounted for a further 24 percent of alcohol-related deaths with the remainder being due to other chronic diseases.

The health burden of alcohol falls inequitably on Maori The combination of more harmful drinking patterns and a smaller proportion of the population in the older age groups where benefits accrue, means that the Maori population is more adversely affected by alcohol than non-Maori population. Overall, Maori had four times the alcohol-related mortality of non-Maori, and more than double the rate of years of life lost due to alcohol. Almost all health benefits from alcohol consumption are in non-Maori.

Maori and non-Maori have different alcohol consumption patterns on average. Non-Maori are more likely to be alcohol drinkers and drink more often, but drink less on a typical drinking occasion, when compared with Maori. The differences are such that average alcohol consumption per day between Maori and non-Maori is similar, but the impacts on health differ substantially.

The research is contained in "The Burden of Death, Disease and Disability due to Alcohol in New Zealand". The report is posted on ALAC's website site at www.alac.org.nz

Alcohol Available for Consumption: Year Ended December 2004

The volume of beer available for consumption in the December 2004 year dropped by 0.2 percent compared with 2003, while wine increased by 5.9 percent and spirits increased by 9.4 percent. The total volume of alcoholic beverage increased by 1.9 percent in the December 2004 year, according to the latest figures from Statistics NZ.

Beer provided 70 percent of the alcoholic beverage available for consumption in the December 2004 year, compared with 83 percent in the December 1994 year. Beer with a strength of 4.35 percent or less, the most common strength of beer available in NZ, accounted for 74 percent of the beer available, compared with 92 percent in the December 1994 year.

Spirits and spirit-based drinks represented 11 percent of the beverage available for consumption in 2004. The share of spirits and spirit-based drinks has increased steadily from 3 percent in 1996. The volume of spirits increased by 16.9 percent in the December 2004 year, the largest increase in spirits since 1995. The demand for spirit-based drinks continued to rise in 2004, as it has every year since 1995, but the rate of growth has been slowing since 2000.

Wine provided 19 percent of the alcohol available in 2004, up from 14 percent in 1994. Almost all the wine available was grape table wine, with fortified wines and fruit wines making up the balance. Consumption of fortified wines has been falling for many years, and has dropped from nearly 20 percent of the wine supply in 1984 to 1.3 percent in 2004. Domestic production provided 73 percent of the wine available in NZ.

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