Background

Alcohol consumption is a risk factor for many health problems. Mortality from causes of death wholly attributable to alcohol consumption by sex and income level was studied and trends in the 1993-2017 period were analyzed in Navarre (Spain).

Methods

Deaths due to alcohol-induced mental disorders, dependence and abuse, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, alcoholic cirrhosis and other alcoholic liver diseases, and accidental alcohol poisoning were selected through codes ICD-9 and ICD-10. Annual income that determines copayment level was used as an indicator of socioeconomic status. Mortality rates adjusted to the European standard population were calculated using the direct method and joinpoint regression was used to evaluate the temporal trend.

Results

A total of 441 deaths were recorded in the population aged 35-79 years. It highlights liver cirrhosis as the most common cause (77,5%). Death rates in men were ten and five times higher than in women in 1993-1997 and 2013-2017 periods, respectively. Compared to men with incomes above 18,000 €, mortality rates were five times higher in the population with incomes below 18,000 €. No statistically significant changes were observed in the trend of mortality rates throughout the period studied.

Conclusions

Mortality by causes of death wholly attributable to alcohol has not decreased in Navarre in the last three decades, it is higher in men than in women and in the population with lower incomes.