Proposed changes for calculating alcohol-related mortality

This consultation gathered views on our proposed changes to the methods used to calculate and update attributable fractions for alcohol-related mortality and hospital admissions.

Alcohol consumption is a known risk factor for many chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease and stroke. In 2018 there were approximately 24,720 alcohol-related deaths, and during 2018 and 2019 approximately 357,660 hospital admissions in England. This represented 2.1% of total hospital admissions, 62% of which were males and over half (57%) were aged between 45 and 74 years old.

Public Health England (PHE) has recently updated the estimated risks for developing diseases associated with drinking alcohol compared to those who do not drink (relative risk) currently used to produce the alcohol-attributable fractions (AAFs) for indicators in Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE). PHE published alcohol-attributable fractions for England: an update, this identified the most recent and robust evidence on the relative risks of disease associated with alcohol consumption, and the proportion of disease cases that can be attributed to alcohol. It updates the AAF estimates that were last published in 2013.

PHE proposes using these updated AAFs for its next publication of alcohol-related mortality and admissions. The consultation presents analysis showing the impact of changing to the updated AAFs on the rates of alcohol-related mortality and hospital admissions as currently published.