Long-Term Monitoring of Health Inequalities: Headline Indicators - October 2012

Alcohol - deaths aged 45-74 years

Summary

• Inequalities have reduced since a peak in 2006 in both relative and absolute terms, but remain higher than in 1998.

Between 1998 and 2006, there was a 24% increase in the rate of alcohol-related deaths among those aged 45-74 years. Since the peak in 2006 the rate of alcohol-related deaths has fallen again to a similar level, and in 2010 was only 2% higher than in 1998 (nearly 1,700 deaths in 2010). The overall death rate in this age group was 87.3 per 100,000 population, but with the rate in the most deprived areas nearly 10 times higher than in areas of low deprivation (236 per 100,000 compared to 27 per 100,000). The longer term pattern in alcohol related deaths has been driven by variations in the most deprived areas, while the death rate in the least deprived areas has remained stable. This resulted in a widening of inequalities in both relative and absolute terms between 1997 and 2006. However, inequalities have begun to fall again, in line with the overall pattern in deaths.

Inequalities gradient in the most recent year available

Relative Index of Inequality (RII) over time

Absolute range over time

Scale / context