TRENDS IN ALCOHOL-RELATED MORTALITY AMONG NEW-MEXICO AMERICAN-INDIANS, HISPANICS, AND NON-HISPANIC WHITES

Reduction of alcohol-related mortality is a national goal for health p romotion and disease prevention. We conducted this analysis to determi ne whether trends in New Mexico's Hispanics, non-Hispanic Whites, and American Indians were consistent with national trends in alcohol-relat ed mortality, and whether differences in drinking patterns could accou nt for racial and ethnic differences in rates, Age-adjusted, race-spec ific, and ethnic-specific alcohol-related mortality rates and 95% conf idence intervals were calculated for 5-year periods for 1958-1991 usin g New Mexico vital statistics data. We estimated the prevalence of acu te and chronic at-risk drinking behaviors and abstinence from data col lected by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for t he period 1986-1992. We found that alcohol-related mortality rates var ied substantially by race, ethnicity, sex, age, and calendar period, A merican Indians had the highest rates for both sexes. Rates increased sharply from the period 1958-1962 until the late 1970s and the early 1 980s, and then began to decrease rapidly. However, during the most rec ent decade, the rates have followed contrasting trends in the three et hnic and racial groups. Although rates have continued to decline among non-Hispanic Whites, rates for Hispanics and American Indians have no t declined, and still remain substantially higher than rates during th e 1958-1962 period. Differences in at-risk drinking behaviors reported to the BRFSS do not explain the contrast in race-specific and ethnic- specific mortality rates. Although progress has been made in reducing national per capita alcohol consumption and alcohol-related mortality, certain high-risk racial and ethnic groups may not be sharing in the progress.