BMJ 2002;325:904 ( 19 October )

Letters

Alcohol and death: the New Zealand experience

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---As a simple measure of human nature, I suspect the initial impact of the paper by White et al on alcohol consumption and mortality will depend on the age of the reader1; as someone in the two unit a week group (by a whisker of course) I was drawn to read the article in more depth.

Although it is clear what the paper adds, it is harder to decide how it affects what we do as health professionals and as part of society. The last comment made by the authors in the discussion is particularly pertinent: "Finally, as most deaths attributable to alcohol at younger ages are due to injuries, a greater focus could be placed on avoiding risky patterns of drinking rather than on reducing average alcohol consumption."

Injuries are a significant cause of death in young adults; even looking at all age death rates given . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Alcohol consumption and mortality: modelling risks for men and women at different ages
Ian R White, Dan R Altmann, and Kiran Nanchahal
BMJ 2002 325: 191. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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