Facts and figures

The impact of alcohol misuse nationally

Alcohol misuse costs the NHS around £1.7 billion every year. [Source: Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit (2003) Interim Analytical Report.
For every £1 invested in specialist alcohol services for dependent drinkers, the public purse saves £5 [Source: UKATT Research Team 2005], including a £1.65 saving for the NHS. [Source: Department of Health Further Analysis 2007].
While there are around 1.1 million dependent drinkers, there are around 10 million drinking at levels which are, or could be, causing serious harm. [Source: ONS Smoking & drinking among Adults, 2007, published Jan 2008].
In 2005, 4,160 people in England and Wales died from alcoholic liver disease – an increase of 41% since 1999, when the number of deaths from this disease was 2,954. [Source: Hospital Episode Statistics 2005]
Most people are aware of units as a measure of alcohol consumption (86%) and many are aware of the recommended daily guidelines (69%) but only 13% keep a check on the number of units they drink. [Source: ONS (2006) Drinking: adults’ behaviour and knowledge in 2006. Omnibus Survey Report No. 31].
There are more than 6,000 children born each year in the UK with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) – about 1% of live births. This can cause severe behavioural problems and learning difficulties. [Source: The National Organisation on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – UK].
Drinkaware Trust was set up in 2006 as a unique world-first partnership between Government, the alcohol industry and stakeholders. The Trust is funded by but wholly independent of industry and exists to promote sensible drinking.
In May 2007, Government secured a ground-breaking agreement with industry to include health and unit information on most alcohol labels by the end of 2008. Labels will include:
- Drink's unit content and recommended Government safe drinking guidelines (UK Health Departments recommend men do not regularly exceed 3-4 units daily and women 2-3 units daily).
- The www.drinkaware.co.uk website details sensible drinking messages from the charity Drinkaware.
- For beer, wine and spirits, unit information will be given per glass and per bottle.
Department of Health advises pregnant women or women trying to conceive should avoid drinking alcohol. If they choose to drink, to minimise risk to the baby, they should not drink more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week and should not get drunk.

The impact of alcohol misuse in the East Midlands

Consumption and direct effects:

5.5% of men and 3.8% of women die from a condition related to alcohol each year
Each man in the region dying from an alcohol-attributable cause loses an average of 20.1 years and each woman loses an average of 15.6 years
Over recent years the death rate from chronic liver disease including cirrhosis has been steadily increasing for women
The total contribution that alcohol makes to the life expectancy of the East Midlands population is on average a loss of 9.5 months for men and a loss of 4.6 months for women
24.3% of men and 12.5% of women are drinking at hazardous and harmful levels¹
16.7% of men and 6.5% of women binge drink (those drinking more than twice their daily limits)

Social and behavioural consequences:

Alcohol is estimated to result in at least 9 crimes for every 1,000 people living in the region every year
In the most recent surveys, 48% of adults believed alcohol to be a major cause of crime and 5% thought alcohol was the main cause of crime
100 people a year are estimated to die due to alcohol attributable land transport accidents.
30.4 casualties per 100,000 population from road traffic accidents involving illegal alcohol levels.

Inequalities in health consequences:

The most deprived fifth of the population suffer two to three times greater loss of life attributable to alcohol; three to five times greater mortality due to alcohol-specific causes; and two to five times more admissions to hospital because of alcohol than the more affluent areas
On average men living in the more deprived areas lose 17 months of life and women lose 7 months of life due to conditions related to alcohol compared with 6 months for men and 3 months for women living in more affluent areas.

Government guidelines

Consumption	Sensible daily consumption on no more than 5 days per week	Sensible weekly consumption	Binge drinking	Hazardous drinking	Harmful drinking
Men	3-4 units	< 21 units	8 or more units in a day	22-50 units per week	> 50 units per week
Women	2-3 units	< 14 units	6 or more units in a day	15-35 units per week	> 35 units per week

Web resources

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