Citation

Scand. J. Public Health 2008; 36(8 Suppl): 75-91.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Associations of Public Health in the Nordic Countries Regions, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1403494808097595

PMID

19033304

Abstract

In 2000, 15% of Danish men and 9% of Danish women stated that they had exceeded the sensible drinking limits during the preceding week. Each year there are at least 3,000 alcohol-related deaths in Denmark according to the underlying and contributory causes stated on the death certificates. This corresponds to 5% of all deaths. Alcohol results in 50,000 years of life lost for men and 20,000 years of life lost for women. Alcohol reduces the life expectancy of Danes by one year and four months for men and 6-7 months for women. People who exceed the sensible drinking limits die an average of 4-5 years prematurely. Persons whose death is caused by alcohol lose 23-24 years of lifetime. Men who exceed the sensible drinking limit can expect 5 fewer years of life without longstanding limiting illness than men who do not exceed the sensible drinking limit. The corresponding figure for women is just under 1 year. Exceeding the sensible drinking limit reduces quality-adjusted life years by 5.1 for men and 3.3 for women. Each year alcohol results in 28,000 hospital admissions, 10,000 emergency department contacts and 72,000 outpatient contacts. Persons who exceed the sensible drinking limits have more than 150,000 alcohol-related contacts with general practitioners each year, of which 80% are accounted for by men. Persons who exceed the sensible drinking limits have more than 325,000 alcohol-related days lost to sickness absence, almost all of which are accounted for by men. Each year more than 500 people receive alcohol-related social disability pensions. Alcohol raises health service costs by DKK 947 million per year. Premature death and resultant saving in future health service consumption result in annual cost savings of DKK 350 million. The net health service costs related to alcohol thus amount to DKK 597 million per year. Alcohol results in an annual production loss of DKK 7229 million calculated using the human capital method and DKK 585 million calculated using the friction cost method. Due to the shorter lifetime the production loss is offset by a DKK 5406 million saving in future consumption.

Language: en