Projections of alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales—tragic toll or potential prize?

Abstract

The latest alcohol-related harm statistics from the UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS) were released on Jan 26, 2012,1 and provide an opportunity to re-evaluate the projections of alcohol-related liver deaths that we previously reported in this journal with 2008 data.2 Using the standard ONS definition,3 alcohol-related liver deaths in England and Wales fell from 6470 in 2008 to 6230 in 2009, but then increased again to 6317 in 2010.4 These data do not include the wider spectrum of alcohol attributable mortality, which would also include acute deaths from accidents, violence, and suicide or from chronic diseases, such as hypertension, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and cancers of the breast and gastrointestinal tract. Alcohol-related liver deaths thus account for around a quarter of total alcohol-related deaths.