Alcohol Concern have released a new alcohol harm map. It aims to 'reveal the real harm and cost of
alcohol at a local level, so that local authorities and local health
providers can ensure that alcohol prevention and treatment services are
available to those with drinking problems.'
The map allows the user to click on a region and select a local authority to uncover how many people are drinking at risky of harmful levels and the imapact it has. This includes data on population prevalence, hospital costs and alcohol-related deaths.
Some of the methodology for alcohol-related hospital admission uses the same 'attributable fractions' data set as the Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE), which also gives estimates for areas such as violence and crime. However the alcohol harm map also provides methodologies to calculate outpatient attendances, A&E activity and alcohol-related deaths. See here for more information on the data set.
Launching the map, Alcohol Concern released a press release stating Baby boomers are draining NHS resources through alcohol misuse. It states the inpatient cost of the 55-74 age group, closely aligned to the baby boom generation, is over ten times greater than the 16-24 age group depsite press attention being focused on the latter.
Alcohol Concern partnered with pharmaceutical company Lundbeck Ltd in the production of the Alcohol Harm Map. Within the guidance of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry code of practice, Lundbeck provided Alcohol Concern with an educational grant; project management support from communications consultancy Munro & Forster and funding for the design and development of the map and collation of the data.
National level data is collated in the Statistics on alcohol for England 2012.
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