Four people dying from alcohol abuse every day, new research claims

Report noted a gradual increase in alcohol-attributable death rates from 1990 onwards, peaking in the period 1998–2000, before levelling off ahead of a slight rise from 2017 onwards. File picture

As many as four people could be dying due to alcohol abuse every single day, a new study suggests.

The new research claims the number of alcohol-related deaths in Ireland is underestimated by up to 25%, and that alcohol could be a factor in almost 5% of all deaths here.

The claim is made in a new report by Alcohol Action Ireland in collaboration with Dr Zubair Kabir of the School of Public Health in University College Cork.

The report said that by applying Global Burden of Disease (GBD) modelling, as many as four deaths every day are attributable to alcohol. It also suggested 27% of suicides and self-harm incidents here are attributable to alcohol.

The Global Burden of Disease model is already in use around the world, not least in gauging the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Alcohol Action Ireland said it was supported by a team of more than 7,000 researchers in more than 200 countries, including Ireland.

It effectively takes data from a range of sources and captures premature death and disability from more than 350 diseases and injuries in 202 countries, by age and sex, from 1990 to the present, allowing comparisons over time, across age groups, and among populations. 

One of the co-authors of the report, Dr Kabir, is the lead researcher on GBD studies from Ireland.

According to the report, the Health Research Board noted 1,094 deaths related to alcohol in 2017, but this is based on "very specific rules in relation to the recording of cause of death on the death certificate and it was thought likely to be an underestimate of alcohol-related mortality in Ireland".

"Using the latest version of the GBD, researchers estimated that in 2019 there were 1,543 deaths in Ireland attributable to alcohol from all causes, representing 4.77% of all deaths," it said. 

"1,104 of these deaths were in males (6.6% of all male deaths) and 439 in females (2.81% of all female deaths).

"This gives an estimate of four deaths per day or 30 per week, 5% of all deaths.

These findings would appear to confirm that deaths officially recorded as attributable to alcohol are an underestimate of alcohol-related mortality in Ireland."

It found the impact was more pronounced among younger and middle-aged people compared to their older counterparts.

The report also noted a gradual increase in alcohol-attributable death rates from 1990 onwards, peaking in the period 1998–2000, before levelling off ahead of a slight rise from 2017 onwards. 

It also said there had been a 407% increase in the number of wine and spirits off-licences in the 20-year period from 1998, as well as greater affordability of alcohol.

It said the largest number of alcohol-related deaths from illness arise from liver cancer, cirrhosis and other chronic liver disease combined — 274 in 2019. 

Dr Sheila Gilheany, chief executive of Alcohol Action Ireland, said: "This data demonstrates the unacceptable burden of alcohol in Ireland."

Alcohol Action Ireland said important parts of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 had yet to be enacted, including a broadcast watershed for alcohol advertisements on TV and radio and health information labelling of alcohol products.

It also said there was a clear need for a State-sponsored alcohol office.

However, the Health Research Board said of the two methods of capturing the data: “It's not comparing like with like."