Objective: This analysis aimed to estimate the burden of disease and injury caused and prevented by alcohol in 2004 for Canadians aged 0-69 years and compare the effects of different magnitudes of adjustment of survey data on these estimates.
Methods: Alcohol indicators were obtained from the Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey 2008 and were corrected to 80% coverage using adult per capita recorded and unrecorded consumption. Risk relations were taken from meta-analyses. Estimates of burden of disease and injury were obtained from the World Health Organization.
Results: In 2004, 4,721 (95% CI 1,432-8,150) deaths and 274,663 (95% CI 201,397-352,432) disability-adjusted life years lost (DALYs) of Canadians 0-69 years of age were attributable to alcohol. This represented 7.1% (95% CI 2.1-12.2%) of all deaths and 9.3% (95% CI 6.8-11.9%) of DALYs for this age range. The sensitivity analysis showed that the outcome estimates varied substantially based on the adjusted coverage rate.
Conclusion: More attention to burden of disease and injury statistics is required to accurately characterize alcohol-related harms. This burden is preventable and could be reduced by implementation of more effective policies.