Mortality of Harmful Drinkers Increased after Reduction of Alcohol Prices in Northern Finland: A 10-Year Follow-Up of Head Trauma Subjects

Publisher： Karger

E-ISSN： 1423-0208|39|3-4|156-162

ISSN： 0251-5350

Source： Neuroepidemiology, Vol.39, Iss.3-4, 2012-08, pp. : 156-162

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Abstract

Objective: Alcohol-related mortality may be influenced by the level of alcohol consumption. We investigated the effect of alcohol price reduction on mortality in a cohort of 827 subjects with head injury. Methods: We used the Finnish National Hospital Discharge Register to identify all diagnoses recorded during hospital and health center visits for survivors of the index injury during a follow-up of 10 years. Mortality data were gathered from death records obtained from the Official Cause-of-Death Statistics. Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify independent predictors for death. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to characterize the effect of alcohol price reduction on mortality of harmful and non-harmful drinkers. Results: Alcohol-related deaths increased after the reduction of alcohol prices on March 1, 2004. Subjects recorded as harmful drinkers during the follow-up period were significantly (p < 0.001) more likely than others to die after the price reduction. Older age (HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.05–1.07), moderate-to-severe brain injury (HR 2.39, 95% CI 1.59–3.60) and harmful drinking recorded after the index trauma (HR 2.59, 95% CI 1.62–4.62) were significant (p < 0.001) predictors for death. Conclusion: We conclude that a political decision to lower the price of alcohol may cause a significant increase in the death rate of harmful drinkers.