UK alcohol damage mapped: The areas of Britain where drink is taking heaviest toll

Source: The Telegraph

Laura Donnelly, health editor

14 SEPTEMBER 2017

Hospital admissions linked to liver damage have doubled in a decade, according to new figures which show the parts of the country where alcohol is taking the heaviest toll.

People from Blackpool are nearly eight times as likely to die from liver disease as those from Norfolk, the new research reveals.

Some 30.1 per 100,000 people from the north-west  town die from the condition before the age of 75. This is compared to just 3.9 per 100,000 in south Norfolk, according to data from Public Health England.

Blackpool is followed by north Manchester, Wolverhampton, Liverpool and Blackburn with Darwen when it comes to high rates of early death. Almost all cases of liver disease can be prevented.

Alcohol, obesity and hepatitis B and C – which are linked to drug use and unprotected sex in some cases – account for up to 90 per cent of cases.

The new data shows that hospital admission rates for cirrhosis of the liver have doubled over the last decade across England, from 54.8 per 100,000 to 108.4 per 100,000 people.

Liver disease is responsible for almost 12 per cent of deaths in men aged 40 to 49 and is the fourth most common cause of years of life lost in people under 75.

While mortality for other illnesses such as heart disease is falling, deaths from liver disease have more than doubled in the last four decades, the figures show.

Professor Julia Verne, head of clinical epidemiology at PHE, said: “Chronic liver disease is a silent killer of young adults, creeping up and showing itself when it’s often too late. However, around 90 per cent of liver disease is preventable.

Vanessa Hebditch, director of communications and policy at the British Liver Trust, said: “Across the UK we are facing a liver disease crisis.

“People are dying of liver damage younger and younger, with the average age of death now being mid-50s.

“It is also becoming more and more common for liver units to have much younger individuals waiting for a liver transplant or dying on the wards.

“This data shows that not only do we need to ensure that there are excellent and consistent liverservices across the country but that need to be diagnosed much earlier to obtain effective care, treatment and support as soon as possible.

“This means that primary care needs to have a much greater emphasis on liver disease.”