Alcohol-related mortality by age and sex and its impact on life expectancy

The level of alcohol-related mortality has been estimated for several populations, but few studies have reported plausible results on the connection between alcohol-related mortality and age and sex. The Finnish death register includes information on both the underlying and contributory causes of death and it yields an individual-level estimate of the contribution of alcohol in mortality. The data for 1987–1993 are used to examine alcohol-related mortality by cause of death, age and sex and to estimate the impact of excessive alcohol use on life expectancy by sex. According to the results, 6% of all deaths were alcohol related. These deaths were responsible for a 2 year loss in life expectancy at age 15 years among men and 0.4 years among women, which explains at least one-fifth of the difference in life expectancies between the sexes. In the age group of 15–49 years, over 40% of all deaths among men and 15% among women were alcohol related. In this age group, over 50% of the mortality difference between the sexes results from alcohol-related deaths. The use of data on contributory causes of death, the organization of the Finnish death certification system and the relatively high proportion of alcohol-related deaths suggest that these data do not underestimate alcohol-related deaths to such an extent as has been the case in earlier studies using data from death certificates. This study shows that alcohol consumption is an important public health issue in Finland and a significant determinant of male premature mortality.