Summary

Description

This statistical report acts as a reference point for health issues relating to alcohol use and misuse, providing information obtained from a number of sources in a user-friendly format. It covers topics such as drinking habits and behaviours among adults (aged 16 and over) and school children (aged 11 to 15); drinking-related ill health and mortality; affordability of alcohol; alcohol-related admissions to hospital; and alcohol-related costs. The report contains previously published information and also includes additional new analyses. The new analyses are mainly obtained from the Health and Social Care Information Centre's (HSCIC) Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) system, and prescribing data. The report also includes up-to-date information on the latest alcohol related government policies and ambitions and contains links to further sources of useful information. The report used a revised methodology for estimating alcohol-related hospital admissions following a review by Public Health England, the Department of Health and the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Consequently estimates of alcohol-related hospital admissions for 2012-13, reported in this publication, are not comparable to estimates in earlier years’ publications. A back time series of estimates of alcohol-related hospital admissions, calculated using the revised methodology, for the years 2003-04 to 2011-12 were made available as additional tables on the 1st October 2014. They provide a comparable 10 year time series from 2003-04 to 2012-13.