Use of a check-box on the 2006 New Mexico death certificate for estimating alcohol-related death

New Mexico has consistently had among the highest alcohol-related chronic disease and injury death rates in the United States. In order to better estimate alcohol-related death in NM, a check-box for alcohol-related deaths was added to the NM death certificate in 2006. Death certificate data from the NM Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics were analyzed. The number and proportion of deaths identified by the check-box were compared for 15 alcohol-induced death categories and 16 alcohol-related injury death categories using the alcohol attributable fractions (AAFs) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) site. There were 352 alcohol-induced deaths in New Mexico in 2006. The alcohol-related death check-box was marked “yes” or “probably” for 326 (93%) of these deaths, with completeness ranging from 81% for alcohol abuse deaths to 100% for alcohol cardiomyopathy. Based on ARDI AAFs, there were an estimated 510 alcohol-related injury deaths. Only 191 injury deaths (37% of the ARDI estimate) had an alcohol check-box designation. The check-box enumerated 93% of ARDI estimated alcohol-related (AR) non-alcohol poisoning deaths, but only 28% of AR suicides, 19% of AR motor-vehicle crash deaths, and 5% of AR homicides. In 2006, the alcohol check-box was not an accurate and reliable method for estimating alcohol-related deaths in NM compared to estimates based on ARDI. These findings, and additional comparisons with death data that include blood alcohol levels, will be used to improve the process by which the alcohol check-box is used to classify alcohol-related death in NM.