Mortality of Harmful Drinkers Increased after Reduction of Alcohol Prices in Northern Finland: A 10-Year Follow-Up of Head Trauma Subjects

• Published in: Neuroepidemiology
• Main Authors: Vaaramo, Kalle, Puljula, Jussi, Tetri, Sami, Juvela, Seppo, Hillbom, Matti
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: S. Karger AG 2012
• Subjects: Meier; Northern Finland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000341241; https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/341241

Objective: Alcohol-related mortality may be influenced by the level of alcohol consumption. We investigated the effect of alcohol price reduction on mortality in a cohort of 827 subjects with head injury. Methods: We used the Finnish National Hospital Discharge Register to identify all diagnoses recorded during hospital and health center visits for survivors of the index injury during a follow-up of 10 years. Mortality data were gathered from death records obtained from the Official Cause-of-Death Statistics. Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify independent predictors for death. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to characterize the effect of alcohol price reduction on mortality of harmful and non-harmful drinkers. Results: Alcohol-related deaths increased after the reduction of alcohol prices on March 1, 2004. Subjects recorded as harmful drinkers during the follow-up period were significantly (p < 0.001) more likely than others to die after the price reduction. Older age (HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.05–1.07), moderate-to-severe brain injury (HR 2.39, 95% CI 1.59–3.60) and harmful drinking recorded after the index trauma (HR 2.59, 95% CI 1.62–4.62) were significant (p < 0.001) predictors for death. Conclusion: We conclude that a political decision to lower the price of alcohol may cause a significant increase in the death rate of harmful drinkers.