New alcohol-related admissions reporting to end ‘lurid’ headlines

Public Health England has announced it is to change the way it calculates alcohol-related admissions to hospital which could lead to an end to claims that alcohol leads to over one million hospital cases a year.

In the new calculations, “attributable fractions” will no longer be counted in relation to alcohol admissions.

Previously, admissions for cases such as hypertension, late on-set diabetes, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease could be counted as being attributable to alcohol – albeit only “fractionally” as they were not necessarily a direct cause.

As the PHE admitted in its report: “For example, an admission with a primary diagnosis of a cataract and a secondary diagnosis of alcoholic liver disease would be included. In this case, it is typically not possible to estimate how much impact the secondary condition, here liver disease, had on the need for the individual to be admitted.”

These measures were developed by the North West Public Health Observatory and adopted without consultation.

This has proved controversial, particularly with recent studies that show the positive effects of moderate consumption in countering some of these conditions and the fact that alcohol consumption is falling.

From now on, only cases where alcohol can be shown to be a direct cause of the admission will be counted, this will include alcohol related liver disease and accidents involving inebriated persons and alcohol poisoning and so on.

The new method of counting could very well see an end to what have been described as “lurid headlines” claiming over one million people a year are admitted due to alcohol.

Although admission figures directly related to alcohol have risen slightly between 2002/03 and 2010/11, it is only when secondary causes are taken into consideration that the figures rise dramatically (see chart above).

In fact, with the new method the more accurate number of alcohol related admissions is closer to 300,000 (having risen from 200,000 in 2002/03) and not 1.2m as has sometimes been quoted before.

Helena Conibear, executive director for Alcohol in Moderation, said: “This is a great step towards a more balanced Public Health Agenda.”

The PHE appeared more reluctant to praise the new system admitting it woul be a, “more reliable measure of trends,” but still insisting that the, “existing measure based on alcohol-related primary and secondary diagnoses should be considered a better measure of the broader impact of alcohol on hospital services.”