| Information component |
County Health Profiles: Pg 4 Health Summary – Indicator 13 |
| Subject category / domain(s) |
The way we live |
| Indicator name (* Indicator title in health profile) |
Prevalence of adults who binge drink (*Binge drinking adults) |
| PHO with lead responsibility |
SEPHO |
| Date of PHO dataset creation |
15/12/2006 |
| Indicator definition |
Prevalence of binge drinking, percentage of resident population, adults, 2000-2002, persons |
| Geography |
England, GOR, County. |
| Timeliness |
Updated annually. |
|
Rationale:What this indicator purports to measure
|
Prevalence of adult binge drinking. |
|
Rationale:Public Health Importance
|
Harmful drinking is a significant public health problem in the UK and is associated with a wide range of health problems, including brain damage, alcohol poisoning, chronic liver disease, breast cancer, skeletal muscle damage, mental ill-health and social problems. Alcohol plays a role in many accidents, acts of violence and other instances of criminal behaviour. Nationally between 780,000 and 1.3 million children are affected by their parents’ alcohol misuse. Such children are four times more likely to suffer from a psychiatric disorder by the age of 15 than the national average and are at increased risk of aggressive behaviour, delinquency, hyperactivity and other forms of conduct disorder. There are particular risks associated with drink-driving, alcohol consumption in the workplace or during the working day and drinking during pregnancy.Alcohol-related problems contribute to social and health inequalities, and reducing harmful drinking is one important element in the broad policy thrust to reduce health inequalities following the recommendations of the Acheson Report (1998).For some people, binge drinking is an occasional event. For others, it is part of a chronic drinking pattern Binge drinking and severe intoxication can cause muscular in-coordination, blurred vision, stupor, hypothermia, convulsions, depressed reflexes, respiratory depression, hypotension and coma. Death can occur from respiratory or circulatory failure or if binge drinkers inhale their own vomit. It is well known that binge drinkers are at increased risk of accidents and alcohol poisoning. A growing body of research suggests that binge drinkers also have a higher all-cause mortality rate than those who have the same average alcohol consumption but drink more frequentlyBinge drinking is specifically related to accidents and violence, both of which impact on the health service. The Strategy Unit has estimated that, at peak times, up to 70 per cent of all admissions to accident and emergency units are related to alcohol consumption. The total cost of alcohol misuse to the health service is estimated to be in the region of £1.7 billion a year.Effective interventions to reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol related harm exist. The evidence suggests that multi-sectoral, multi-faceted interventions work best. These include: · population level measures such as restricting the availability and price of alcohol, drink driving legislation and taxation; · school based alcohol education programmes; · brief interventions in a variety of settings, such as primary health care, work-based training programmes etc.For further information please see Choosing Health in the South East: Alcohol p35 for summary list of effective interventions.http://www.sepho.org.uk/Download/Public/10571/ 1/sepho%20alcohol%20report%20Jan%2007.pdf |
| Rationale: Purpose behind the inclusion of the indicator |
To estimate the proportion of binge drinking adults in local authorities.To help reduce the prevalence of excessive alcohol consumption and the health risks associated with single episodes of intoxication. |
|
Rationale:Policy relevance
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Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier.http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/ Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4094550. Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England (2004) |
| Interpretation: What a high / low level of indicator value means |
A high indicator value (red circle in health summary chart)) represents a statistically significant higher level of adult binge drinking prevalence when compared to the England average value.A low indicator value (amber circle in health summary chart) represents a statistically significant lower level of adult binge drinking prevalence when compared to the national value.However binge drinking at any prevalence level greater than 0 is undesirable, and therefore a low indicator value should not mean that PH action is not needed. |
| Interpretation: Potential for error due to type of measurement method |
HSE numerator data are broadly based on observed self-reported drinking behaviour. Men were defined as having indulged in binge drinking if they had consumed 8 or more units of alcohol on the heaviest drinking day in the previous seven days; for women the cut-off was 6 or more units of alcohol.Self-reported consumption may be prone to respondent bias.There may also be a discrepancy between these estimates and the lower tier synthetic estimates (districts) which are based on modelled data. This has lead to inconsistencies between lower tier and county estimates for some areas as the datasets are derived using different methods. |
| Interpretation: Potential for error due to bias and confounding |
The Health Survey for England under-samples younger people, people in employment, ethnic minorities, women, those who are healthier but exhibit less healthy behaviour.These data have not been age-standardised and, therefore, variation between area values may be a result of differences in population structure. |
| Confidence Intervals: Definition and purpose |
A confidence interval is a range of values that is normally used to describe the uncertainty around a point estimate of a quantity, for example, a mortality rate. This uncertainty arises as factors influencing the indicator are subject to chance occurrences that are inherent in the world around us. These occurrences result in random fluctuations in the indicator value between different areas and time periods. In the case of indicators based on a sample of the population, uncertainty also arises from random differences between the sample and the population itself.The stated value should therefore be considered as only an estimate of the true or ‘underlying’ value. Confidence intervals quantify the uncertainty in this estimate and, generally speaking, describe how much different the point estimate could have been if the underlying conditions stayed the same, but chance had led to a different set of data. The wider is the confidence interval the greater is the uncertainty in the estimate.Confidence intervals are given with a stated probability level. In Health Profiles 2007 this is 95%, and so we say that there is a 95% probability that the interval covers the true value. The use of 95% is arbitrary but is conventional practice in medicine and public health. The confidence intervals have also been used to make comparisons against the national value. For this purpose the national value has been treated as an exact reference value rather than as an estimate and, under these conditions, the interval can be used to test whether the value is statistically significantly different to the national. If the interval includes the national value, the difference is not statistically significant and the value is shown on the health summary chart with a white symbol. If the interval does not include the national value, the difference is statistically significant and the value is shown on the health summary chart with a red or amber symbol depending on whether it is worse or better than the national value respectively. |
