Australia: Alcohol-related disease kills almost 6000 people in Australia every year: WA study
By Belinda Tasker | AAP
February 26, 2018
ALCOHOL-related diseases are being blamed for causing the deaths of nearly 6000 Australians each year.
A study by the National Drug Research Institute at WA’s Curtin University has found an estimated 5785 people aged over 15 died from alcohol-attributable causes in 2015.
Just over a third died from alcohol-attributed cancer, with injuries, cardiovascular disease and digestive diseases linked to 17 per cent of deaths.
“This research shows that in Australia, one person dies every 90 minutes on average, and someone ends up in our hospitals every three-and-a-half minutes, because of preventable conditions caused by alcohol,” NDRI alcohol policy team leader Professor Tanya Chikritzh said.
Breast cancer and liver disease were the main causes of death for women, while most men died from liver disease and bowel cancer.
As well as the 2000 people who died from alcohol-attributable cancer, another 13,000 were hospitalised with cancers linked to low or moderate drinking levels.