Hospitalisations
The National Hospital Morbidity Database showed that in 2017–18, there were about 140,000 hospital separations for a drug-related principal diagnosis. On its own, alcohol accounted for 54% of all drug-related separations (Table S1.8a).
Alcohol was the drug-related principal diagnosis with the highest number of hospital separations across the 5-year period from 2014–15 to 2018–19, with the number of separations increasing from 65,701 to 75,772 in that time (Table S1.8b).
In 2018–19, the rate of drug-related hospital separations for alcohol was higher for people usually residing in Major cities than in Regional and remote areas (304 per 100,000 population compared with 277.7 per 100,000 population). Of all remoteness areas, the rate of drug-related hospital separations for alcohol was highest for people usually residing in Remote and very remote areas (649.7 per 100,000 population)—more than twice as high for people usually residing in Major cities (Table S1.8c).
Ambulance attendances
Data on alcohol and other drug-related ambulance attendances are sourced from the National Surveillance System for Alcohol and Other Drug Misuse and Overdose report. Data for 2019 are available for New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. Data are presented for 4 snapshot months per year, specifically March, June, September and December. Please see the data quality statement for further information.
The rate of alcohol intoxication-related attendances ranged from 142.2 per 100,000 population in New South Wales to 177.9 per 100,000 population in the Australian Capital Territory. The median age for alcohol intoxication-related attendances ranged from 36 years in the Australian Capital Territory to 41 years in Victoria, and the majority of attendances were for males.
Higher rates for alcohol intoxication-related ambulance attendances were reported in regional areas for New South Wales (146.0 per 100,000 population compared with 139.8 for metropolitan areas) and Victoria (180.9 per 100,000 population compared with 158.6 for metropolitan areas). However, in Tasmania the rate for these attendances was higher for Greater Hobart (175.4 per 100,000) than for Regional Tasmania (127.3 per 100,000). Similar proportions of alcohol intoxication-related attendances were transported to hospital in metropolitan and regional areas for New South Wales (82% and 79%, respectively), Victoria (79% and 81%, respectively) and Tasmania (75% and 74%, respectively) (Table S2.81) (Moayeri et al. 2020).
Poly drug use
Poly drug use is defined as the use of more than 1 illicit drug or licit drug in the previous 12 months. In 2019, the NDSHS showed more than 1 in 4 recent risky drinkers reported recent use of cannabis (27% for lifetime risky drinkers and 28% for single occasion risky drinkers). Around 1 in 5 reported that they were also daily smokers (21% for lifetime risky drinkers and 18.7% for single occasion risky drinkers) (Table S2.68).
See also: Social impacts in the Impacts section for information about other impacts of alcohol use.
Treatment
The AIHW’s Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) showed that in 2018–19:
- Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern for a client’s own drug use in 36% of all closed treatment episodes (Table S2.76).
- Client demographics where alcohol was the principal drug of concern:
- nearly two-thirds of clients were male (65%) (Table 2.77) and around 1 in 6 were Indigenous (17.2%) (Table 2.78; Figure ALCOHOL6).
- Indigenous Australians (1,249 per 100,000 population) were 7 times as likely as non-Indigenous Australians (173 per 100,000 population) to have received treatment for alcohol (AIHW 2020a).
- Source of referral for treatment:
- Where alcohol was the principal drug of concern, the most common source of referral was self/family (43% of treatment episodes), followed by a health service (37%) (Table S2.79).
- Treatment type:
- The most common main treatment type was counselling (40% of closed treatment episodes); followed by assessment only (17.5%) and withdrawal management (15.9%)—this was consistent across all age groups (Table S2.80).
- The median treatment length for closed treatment episodes where alcohol was the principal drug of concern was 26 days.
- Over the 5 years to 2018–19, counselling, withdrawal management, and assessment only have remained the most common main treatment types for closed treatment episodes where alcohol was the principal drug of concern (AIHW 2020a).
Where the most common principal drug of concern was alcohol, the proportion of clients who travelled 1 hour or longer to treatment services in 2016–17 was higher in Regional and remote areas than in Major cities (29% compared with 7%) (AIHW 2019a).