Australia’s alcohol-induced deaths decreasing

Australia’s rates of alcohol-induced deaths has dropped to 5.1 per 100,000, down from 6.6 deaths in the late 1990s, according to a new report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
 
‘There were 1366 alcohol-induced deaths in 2017, with those deaths most commonly occurring in males aged in their early 60s and caused by alcoholic liver diseases,’ Justine Boland, Program Manager of the ABS Health and Disability Branch, said.
 
The news is not all good, however, with alcohol found to still be a major contributor to a large number of deaths, particularly those due to an ‘injury event’. When considering alcohol and its contribution to all deaths, a total of 4186 registered deaths had alcohol mentioned in 2017.
 
‘This change is particularly marked for Australian women, who have recorded the highest rate of alcohol-related death for the last 20 years at seven deaths per 100,000 persons,’ the ABS stated.
 
Heart disease remains Australia’s leading cause of death, although the number and rate of deaths from coronary artery disease continues to decline, according to the ABS. It was also found that, as death rates from heart disease and stroke decrease, other diseases such as dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, continue to rise.
 
The last year also saw a significant spike in deaths due to flu, with 1255 deaths in 2017, up from 464 in 2016.
 
There were 160,909 deaths in Australia in 2017, with a standardised death rate of 5.3 per 1000 people.

ABS alcohol-induced deaths Australian Bureau of Statistics