A QUANTIFICATION OF ALCOHOL-RELATED MORTALITY IN NEW-ZEALAND

Background: There are no published New Zealand (NZ) studies on alcohol drinking and total mortality, despite its importance to alcohol healt h policy. Aims: To estimate the proportion of NZ deaths caused or prev ented by alcohol drinking. Methods: The proportion of current alcohol drinkers from recent NZ surveys, and pooled relative risks from a revi ew of the international literature on alcohol and mortality, were used to calculate disease-specific population attributable risks. The numb er of deaths caused (or prevented) by alcohol were calculated for 1987 New Zealand deaths. Person-years of life lost (or saved) were calcula ted using recent NZ life tables. Results: The association between alco hol and total mortality was related to age. Alcohol was estimated to h ave caused 3.0% of all deaths among 0-14 year olds and 20.1% of deaths among 15-34 year olds, mostly from road injuries. In contrast, alcoho l was estimated to have prevented 0.5% of all deaths among 35-64 year olds and 3.4% of deaths among greater than or equal to 65 year olds du e to its protective effect against coronary heart disease. For all age groups, alcohol was estimated to have prevented 1.5% of deaths. Howev er, the number of person-years of life lost among ages less than 35 ye ars was greater than those saved in the older age groups, so that alco hol was estimated to have caused the loss of 9525 person-years of life for all ages combined. Conclusions: The adverse effects of alcohol on total mortality are confined to age groups less than 35 years. Public health policy to minimise deaths from alcohol should be concentrated on this group.