In a media release, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has revealed the extent of alcohol harm in the country. The latest injury and hospitalisation show reveal a clear gender disparity in the risk to health and well-being, where men are more exposed to alcohol harm.
1,500 of the 1,950 alcohol-related injury deaths during the period 2019-20, were among males. 59% of the 18,000 alcohol-related hospitalisations that happened during the same period also were men.
Statistics indicate gender disparities in alcohol-related injury deaths
The Institute also provided a breakdown of the data regarding alcohol-related injury deaths in 2019-20 among men and women:
- 48% of total alcohol-related deaths among men were due to suicide, while the figure for women was 43%.
- Accidental alcohol poisoning caused 23% of alcohol-related deaths among men, while the figure was 33% for women.
- 12% of men’s alcohol-related deaths were categorised as ‘transport’.
- 9% of alcohol-related deaths in women were due to falls.
Overall, alcohol accounted for 5.7% of all injury hospitalisations and 14% of injury deaths in Australians. The media release also qualifies that the databases used to conduct the research did not include information related to cases where a person was treated in an emergency department or by a general or allied healthcare practitioner. Combined with the fact that the presence of alcohol is often not even included in patient records, it is likely that the new figures are largely understated.
Alcohol-Related Injury Hospitalisations
The Institute also provides a breakdown of alcohol-related injury hospitalisations.
The majority of alcohol-related injury hospitalisations occurred in the 45-49 (1,641 – 9%) and 20-24 (1,629 – 9%) age groups for males, and in the 45-49 (1,386 – 11%) age group for females.
| Falls | Intentional Self-Harm | Assault | Transport | |
| Men | 43% | 17% | 14% | 9% |
| Women | 35% | 33% | 15% | 4% |
Impact of the pandemic on alcohol use
The rate of alcohol-related injury deaths increased alarmingly between 2010-11 and 2019-20, increasing from 4.8 to 9.7 deaths per 100,000 people. The change was more than a 200% increase from the baseline figures. These figures dropped by 10% between 2018-19 and 2019-20, which was a time periods affected by quarantine lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is clear that the burden of alcohol harm affecting the population is massive.
Injury and hospitalisation data reveal more social inequalities in alcohol harm
The gender dimension is not the only area in which a disparity in alcohol harm is reflected.
Very remote areas of Australia have a higher prevalence of alcohol-related hospitalisations, over eight times the national rate, and almost eleven times the rate for people living in major cities.
People living in the lowest of five socioeconomic areas were more than twice as likely to be hospitalised due to alcohol-related causes as their counterparts in the highest socioeconomic areas.
Recent trends reveal increasing exposure of young girls to alcohol use and harm
Last year Movendi International reported on a worrying trend where teenage girls in Australia were falling prey to aggressive marketing by the alcohol industry.
Alcohol use among teenaged girls in Australia has sharply increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially concerning since alcohol use is declining among most young people in the Western world. One reason for the worrying trend is heavy pandemic marketing by the alcohol industry. The alcohol industry used marketing messages to target females and drive the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism during COVID-19.
A study conducted by the University of Sydney examined how the global pandemic affected the Big Six lifestyle factors: physical inacitivity, poor diet, poor sleep, excessive recreational screen time, alcohol use, and tobacco use in Australian teenagers.
Alcohol use had increased more among girls compared to boys.
These results are especially concerning when compared with the fact that young people in Australia are generally reducing their alcohol use. The study also concluded that it was most likely that the stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic situation had made young teens more vulnerable as they attempted to cope using risky behaviours.
Dark alcohol marketing targets young people specifically
A study commissioned by VicHealth and carried out by researchers at Queensland revealed a sophisticated marketing strategy that targeted young people specifically by catering to their individual interests.
This meant that each young person saw advertisements that were specific to that person. The ads took their gender as well as their apparent socioeconomic as determined by the algorithm into consideration. These strategies contribute to the narrow interests of Big Alcohol while jeopardizing the health and well-being of the public.
Rise in Alcohol Harm in Australia
As reported by Movendi International previously, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released data gathered on alcohol-induced deaths in 2021. This data revealed that alcohol-induced deaths had increased for the second year in a row – while also being at the highest level for the past decade.
The alcohol deaths taken into consideration here included those caused by acute illnesses such as alcohol poisoning and chronic diseases such as liver diseases. It has to be noted that the study did not consider deaths where alcohol was a contributing factor. This means that these figures too were likely underestimated.
For further reading
Movendi International: “Australia: Alcohol Marketing Self-Regulation Fails to Protect Youth“
Movendi International: “High Costs of Secondhand Alcohol Harm Revealed in New Australian Study“
Movendi International: “Alcohol Consumption at Home: Very Cheap, Increasingly Common, Harmful – Case Study from Australia“
Sources
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare: “Alcohol-Related Injury: Hospitalisations and Deaths, 2019–20“
Medical and Life Sciences News: “78% of Alcohol-Related Injury Deaths and 59% of Hospitalizations Among Men“