independent Cornish news and comment

Hospital admissions due to alcohol increase by 50%

Hospital admissions specifically due to alcohol increased by more than 50% in the South West between 2001 and 2005, according to a report published today (2 April 2008) by the South West Public Health Observatory.

The report also highlighted that an estimated three quarters of a million (728,500) people aged 16-64 in the region drink to hazardous levels and that around 119,000 are dependent drinkers.

Hospital admissions due to alcohol for women (aged under 75) are higher than the England average, although men are still most likely to suffer death or illness due to alcohol.

The severity of the problem is brought into even sharper focus when looking at the effects of alcohol on young people. The report highlights that young people are increasingly at risk. Between 1998 and 2004, the number of under 18 year-olds admitted to hospital due to acute intoxication increased by 60% and by 140% in those aged 18-24. With this growing number of young people being treated for alcohol misuse, there is the possibility that they will have greater health problems as they get older.

Dr Gabriel Scally, Regional Director of Public Health at NHS South West said: “We need to call time on alcohol misuse in the South West. Not only does it affect the health of the person misusing it at a massive cost to the health service, it also has a wider impact – affecting children, families, education, work productivity, crime and disorder.

“There are real inequalities in the South West with regards to alcohol misuse. Alcohol-specific deaths and alcohol-specific hospital admissions are both five times higher in the most deprived areas compared with the most affluent in the region. If alcohol-specific mortality rates and hospital admissions were reduced across the region to the rates experienced in the least deprived fifth of areas, 300 premature deaths and around 7,300 hospital admissions a year could be prevented.

“I welcome this report which shows quite clearly that more needs to be done to reduce alcohol harm in the region. Because of the size of the problem and wider range of impacts, no one approach is going to be enough. All agencies need to work together, and a mixture of targeted and population-based approaches are needed to tackle this growing problem.” Notes:
1. For further information or an interview, please contact Helen Bolton on 0117 970 6474 ext 302, or email helen.bolton@swpho.nhs.uk
2. The report, “Calling time: Reducing alcohol harm in the South West – a blueprint for joint action”, is available from the South West Public Health Observatory website Report: Calling time: Reducing alcohol harm in the South West
3. Throughout the report, ‘alcohol-specific’ refers to disorders wholly due to alcohol, while ‘alcohol-related’ refers to disorders in which alcohol is a factor.
4. There are different definitions of ‘hazardous’ drinking used in the report. The definition here, in relation to the estimated number of hazardous drinkers in the South West, is based on the results of the Alcohol Needs Assessment Research Project (ANARP, 2005), which used the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire to identify persons whose alcohol consumption has become harmful or hazardous to their health. A score of 8 or more on the questionnaire is associated with harmful or hazardous drinking, while a score of 13 or more in women and 15 or more in men is likely to indicate alcohol dependence. The national results were applied to the South West population to give a ‘synthetic estimate’ of the numbers of hazardous and dependent drinkers in the region.