Open AccessAssociations between alcohol related hospital admissions and alcohol consumption in Victoria: Influence of socio‐demographic factors
Author(s) -
Jonas Helen,
Dietze Paul,
Rumbold Greg,
Hanlin Kirsten,
Cvetkovski Stefan,
Laslett AnneMarie
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-842x.1999.tb01255.x
Subject(s) - per capita , demography , medicine , alcohol consumption , consumption (sociology) , ecological study , environmental health , alcohol , population , biochemistry , chemistry , social science , sociology
Objective: To examine the cross‐sectional ecologic associations between apparent per‐capita alcohol consumption, alcohol‐related hospital admission rates, and the distributions of socio‐demographic factors for people residing in 76 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Victoria, during the 1995–1996 fiscal year. Method: Visitor‐adjusted per‐capita alcohol consumption was obtained from wholesale sales data from the Liquor Licensing Commission Victoria. Alcohol‐related hospital admission rates were extracted from the Victorian Inpatient Minimum Dataset, and adjusted by the appropriate aetiologic fractions. Summary socio‐demographic measures were derived from the 1996 Census. Their associations were analysed using multiple linear regression. Results:Per‐capita alcohol consumption ranged from 4 to 14 litres absolute alcohol/ year and alcohol‐related hospital admission rates ranged from 5 to 25 per 10,000 residents/year (external‐cause diagnoses) and 8–37 per 10,000 residents/ year (disease diagnoses). Higher levels of per‐capita consumption were associated with higher admission rates (r=0.45 for external cause diagnoses, M5.66 for disease diagnoses, and r=0.70 for all diagnoses), each per‐capita increase of one litre/year corresponding to increased admission rates of 0.6, 1.5 and 2.1 per 10,000 person‐years, respectively. Further adjustments by summary socio‐demographic measures reduced, but did not modify, the associations between per‐capita consumption and admission rates. Conclusions and Implications: Summary measures of sales‐based per‐capita alcohol consumption and socio‐demographic environments may provide useful indicators of alcohol‐related morbidity in Victorian communities.