Development in Alcohol-Related Harm in Denmark 1990–2005

Aims This article, as part of a Nordic project, aims at studying the development of alcohol-related harms in the Danish society in the 1990s and early 2000s, a period when alcohol consumption was stable at a relatively high Nordic level. Data The study is based on data on sales of alcohol and on register data on alcohol-related morbidity, mortality, traffic accidents and the development of violent crimes. Analysis Both total alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm have been practically unchanged during the period, in spite of large changes in consumption of the different types of alcohol. Pancreatitis mortality and hospitalisations of men due to alcoholism, alcohol psychosis and poisoning have increased, while alcohol-related traffic accidents and detentions due to drunkenness have decreased. These developments may mirror changes in the activities and structure of various authorities. Conclusions To properly estimate the effects of changes in drinking patterns on alcohol-related harms new measures of alcohol-related harms are needed that take into account the attributable etiological fraction of alcohol to for instance coronary heart disease. There is also a need for better measures of social consequences of drinking.