Alcohol-related deaths by occupation: what do data for england and wales in 2001-2005 tell us about doctors' mortality?

Abstract

Alcohol-related mortality for different occupations in England and Wales has long been monitored by the Office for National Statistics and its predecessor organizations. Staff at the General Register Office in the early 1890s sorted half a million paper death records into separate occupational groups, which were in turn classified by cause of death. The results of the consequent analyses, published in 1895, were the first comprehensive assessment of mortality from a range of causes for men in particular occupations (General Register Office, 1895). From the wealth of results, we learn that mortality in publicans from alcoholism was seven times that of all working men, while deaths from liver disease were six and a half times higher. Mortality from alcoholism for workers in agriculture was, conversely, less than a third of that for men in all occupations. Subsequent reports show some consistencies, including that the highest levels of alcohol-related mortality are generally found among those who work in the drinks industry. The last ONS report considered deaths up to 1990 (Drever, 1995), but since then death rates from causes related to alcohol misuse have been rising rapidly. In fact, rates in the UK almost doubled between 1991 and 2005 (Office for National Statistics, 2006). It was therefore timely for ONS to undertake a new analysis of alcohol-related mortality by occupation, the results of which were published in August 2007 (Romeri et al ., 2007). Using the National Statistics definition of alcohol-related mortality (which includes only those causes regarded as being most directly due to alcohol consumption, such as alcoholic liver disease and fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver), we examined deaths in England and Wales between 2001 and 2005. From the information collected at death registration, we have the occupation of the deceased, …