Estimations of Alcohol-Attributable and Alcohol-Preventable Mortality in Denmark

In an attempt to gauge the harmful and beneficial health effects of alcohol consumption, scientists studied data based on meta-analyses and the Danish National Survey to determine rates of alcohol-attributable and alcohol-preventable mortality in Denmark in 2010. They used estimates of the potentially harmful effects of alcohol use on more than 20 diseases, giving 100% values to “alcohol use disorders,” although the specific causes of death are not known for this category. Key findings were as follows:

• The authors estimated that 5% of deaths among women and 9.5% of deaths among men were attributable to alcohol consumption.
• The majority of alcohol-attributable deaths were caused by high consumption.
• The authors estimated that between 2% and 3% of deaths were prevented by alcohol.

Comments:

In these analyses, most of the attributions for harm are realistic, but the alcohol-preventable attributions for diabetes and ischemic heart disease appear to be low. Previous estimates of alcohol-attributable and alcohol-preventable effects have varied widely; differing assumptions about alcohol’s effect on various diseases are apparently the prime reason for these disparities. There is no question that heavy alcohol consumption contributes to a large number of disease conditions. On the other hand, if the potential benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are underestimated, a net unfavorable result—as in the present study—is unavoidable.

R. Curtis Ellison, MD

Reference:

Eliasen M, Becker U, Grønbæk M, et al. Alcohol-attributable and alcohol-preventable mortality in Denmark: an analysis of which intake levels contribute most to alcohol’s harmful and beneficial effects. Eur J Epidemiol. 2013 [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1007/s10654-013-9855-2.