• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.24-43
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• 2004

Although alcohol misuse contributes substantially to mortality from diseases, injuries and adverse effects, a few attempts have been made to figure out size of adverse consequences attributable to alcohol in Korea. This study was conducted to describe trends of estimated deaths attributable to alcohol in Korea. Estimations were made by employing Korean alcohol aetiological fraction(AEF) into deaths from alcohol-related diseases, injuries, and adverse effects from year of 1995 through 2000. Korean AEF was derived from previous studies on AEF applied to USA and Canada (Schultz et al.,1991; English et al., 1995) with reflecting peculiar drinking patterns in Korea. An average number of deaths attributable to alcohol was 21,123, accounting for 8.76% of all deaths reported to National Statistical Office during the period. Death rates attributable to alcohol tended to decrease from year of 1995 to 1997 and then increased with peak at year of 1999. Sex-age standardized alcohol attributable death rates varied among areas, with those of metropolitan areas being lower than those of non metropolitan areas. Years of potential life lost (YPLL) were estimated to reflect qualitative aspect of deaths attributable to alcohol. Similar change patterns during the year were observed between number of deaths and YPLL. Average YPLL of men was longer than that of women by about 4 years. Some implications for future study have been discussed.