Scotland: Alcohol Death Rates Falling
New data reports that alcohol death rates are falling in Scotland.
Scotland has a high rate of alcohol specific deaths, however there has been a statistically significant decrease in these deaths comparative to the deaths in 2001 according to a new report by the Office of National Statistics.
Comparative to Scotland, England and Wales have had significant increases in the alcohol-related death rate in the same time period.
- For men, the alcohol-specific death rate has decreased in Scotland by 25%.
- There were 29.4 deaths per 100,000 men in Scotland last year, down from 37.6 in 2008.
- For women, the rate rose to 13.1 per 100,000 from 11.6 in 2017, but was still significantly lower than the 15.2 rate in 2008
Three-quarters of alcohol-specific deaths were caused by alcoholic liver disease. Other causes included accidental poisoning and mental and behavioural problems caused by alcohol use.
Despite Scotland’s higher rate of alcohol-specific deaths, it remains the only UK constituent country to show statistically significant improvement when comparing with 2001 rates.
In comparison, both England and Wales had statistically significant increases over the same period,” according to the Office of National Statistics.
Alcohol policy changes
This positive trend is accredited to the recently implement minimum unit pricing (MUP) in Scotland which was implemented in May 2018 after a hard-won battle with Big Alcohol. Initial results since MUP has found that the policy is already reducing alcohol consumption beyond expectations in Scotland.
Data published earlier this year showed that consumption in Scotland reduced by 3% in 2018,” said Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, as per BBC.
This gives us cause for optimism that minimum unit pricing appears to be having an effect on how much we are drinking and this should translate into improvements in health and wellbeing and fewer deaths,” added Ms. Douglas.
However, Alcohol Focus Scotland stresses there is a long way to go to reduce alcohol harm further in Scotland and suggest increasing the MUP and marketing restrictions to further curb the harm and create a safer Scotland for all.
Following the success of MUP in Scotland the Welsh Parliament will also be implementing MUP from 2020.