Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116052

Mandy Stahre, MPH, Association of Schools of Public Health, DACH, NCCDPHP, 4770 Buford Hwy NE MS K-67, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717, 770-488-5325, bjq4@cdc.gov and Robert D. Brewer, MD, MSPH, Division of Adult and Community Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, NE, Mailstop K-67, Atlanta, GA 30341.

Background: Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States and is associated with multiple adverse health consequences, including liver cirrhosis, various cancers, unintentional injuries and violence. Methods: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new version of Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) software in 2004. The software calculates or provides alcohol-attributable fractions (AAFs) for 54 alcohol-related conditions, and then uses these AAFs to generate estimates of alcohol-attributable deaths (AADs) and years of potential life lost (YPLL) for the U.S. and for states. The software also allows users to input data for specific geographic locations (e.g., a county) to produce sub-state estimates of AADs and YPLLs. Results: In 2001, there were approximately 75,000 AADs and 2.3 million YPLL, or approximately 30 years of life lost per death, attributable to excessive alcohol consumption in the U.S. Approximately 4,500 (6%) of these 75,000 AADs involved persons under age 21, which resulted in approximately 270,000 YPLL. Of these deaths, 4,320 (96%) were due to injuries, most of which were caused by motor-vehicle traffic crashes (47%), homicide (27%), or suicide (11%). States averaged 1,485 AADs and 45,586 YPLL, ranging from 138 AADs and 3,769 YPLL in Vermont to 8,654 AADs and 254,087 YPLL in California. Conclusion: Excessive alcohol consumption remains a huge public health problem in the US. ARDI software provides a powerful tool for assessing AADs and YPLL, which can be used to support program and policy initiatives to prevent excessive alcohol consumption.

Learning Objectives:

• 1)Access reports from the Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) software
• 2)Identify the alcohol-attributable deaths and years of potential life lost (YPLL) for a particular state
• 3)Develop materials to assist in grants and projects for identifying the impact of excessive alcohol use at the state or local level

Keywords: Alcohol Use, Technology

Related Web page: www.cdc.gov/alcohol

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation