Health and harms
For related content on health and harms, see also:
Burden of disease
The Australian burden of disease study 2018 found that in young people (aged 15–24):
- Alcohol use and illicit drug use were the leading causes of the total burden of disease in males.
- Alcohol use and illicit drug use were the second and third leading causes (respectively) of disease burden in females (AIHW 2021b).
Younger people are also more likely to be victims of alcohol-related incidents. In 2019, 1 in 3 (34%) people aged 18–24 had been the victim of any alcohol-related incident (including physical and verbal abuse and being put in fear) in the previous 12 months (AIHW 2020). This was higher than for any other age group (AIHW 2020, Table 3.48).
Furthermore, 83% of risky drinkers aged 14–19 years reported that they were injured as a result of their drinking in the past 12 months and 7% attended the emergency department for an alcohol related injury (Lam et al. 2017).
Deaths due to harmful alcohol consumption
Alcohol-induced deaths are defined as those that can be directly attributable to alcohol use, as determined by toxicology and pathology reports (for example, chronic conditions such as alcoholic liver cirrhosis or acute conditions such as alcohol poisoning). Alcohol-related deaths include deaths directly attributable to alcohol use and deaths where alcohol was listed as an associated cause of death (for example, a motor vehicle accident where a person recorded a high blood alcohol concentration) (ABS 2018).
See also Health impacts: Deaths due to harmful alcohol consumption.
In 2021, ABS Causes of Death data reported 1,559 alcohol-induced deaths. Of these deaths, 3.2% (or 50 deaths) were in people aged 15–34, with this age group experiencing the lowest rate of death at (0.7 deaths per 100,000 population) (ABS 2022b, Table 13.12). In addition:
- 2 in 3 (68%) of these alcohol-induced deaths were from the chronic effects of alcohol (ABS 2022b, Table 13.16).
- Overall, the lowest age-specific rate for both females and males were for those aged 15–34 years (0.4 and 1.1 per 100,000 population, respectively) (ABS 2022b, Table 13.12).
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) analysis of the AIHW National Mortality Database reported 1,452 alcohol-induced deaths and 4,516 alcohol-related deaths in 2020:
- There were no alcohol-induced deaths for people aged 15–19 and the rate was 0.1 per 100,000 population for those aged 20–24 years. This compares with the highest rate of 16.0 per 100,000 population for people aged 60–64 years.
- For alcohol-related deaths, the rate for people aged 15–19 years was 4.1 per 100,000 population, a decrease from 4.6 per 100,000 population in 2019.
- For those aged 20–24 years it was 10.9 per 100,000 population in 2019 and 9.6 per 100,000 population in 2020.
- These rates compare with the highest rate of alcohol-related death of 32.7 per 100,000 people for those aged 60–64 years (Table S1.5).
Drug-induced deaths
Drug-induced deaths are defined as those that can be directly attributable to drug use and includes both those due to acute toxicity (for example, drug overdose) and chronic use (for example, drug-induced cardiac conditions) as determined by toxicology and pathology reports (ABS 2022b).
In 2021, ABS Causes of Death data reported 1,704 drug-induced deaths. Of these deaths, 5.3% (90 deaths) were in people aged 15–24 years. This age group had the lowest age-specific rate of death, 2.9 deaths per 100,000 population (ABS 2022b, Table 13.2).
AIHW analysis of the National Mortality database shows that in 2020, 22% of people aged 15–24 reported personal history of self-harm as the most frequently occurring psychosocial risk factor (Table S1.5).
In 2019, low rates of opioid-induced deaths were recorded for those aged 15–24 (2.1 per 100,000 population compared with the highest rate of 9.7 per 100,000 population for those aged 45–54) (Chrzanowska et al. 2021).
Mental health
- The Australian Secondary Students' Alcohol and Drug (ASSAD) survey showed that in 2017, both male and female students who reported a mental health condition were more likely to report higher use of tobacco, alcohol and illicit substances than those that had not been diagnosed with a mental health condition (Guerin & White 2020).
- The Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing showed that in 2013–14, 45% of young people with major depressive disorder had used cannabis or other drugs (Lawrence et al. 2015).
Treatment
The 2020–21 Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) annual report shows that over 1 in 10 (11%) clients were aged 10–19. Over half (52%) of all clients were aged 20–39 (AIHW 2022, Table SC.3).
These are similar to 2019–20, when 12% of all clients were aged 10–19 and 54% were aged 20–39 (AIHW 2021a).
Data collected for the AODTS NMDS are released twice each year—an early insights report in April and a detailed report mid-year.
Data from the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) provide information on younger people in AOD treatment in Australia (AIHW 2021). For the purposes of the AODTS NMDS, young people are defined as those aged between 10 and 29 years.
The Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) provides information on treatment provided to clients by publicly funded AOD treatment services, including government and non-government organisations. Data from the AODTS NMDS showed that almost 2 in 5 (36%) clients were aged between 10 and 29 years in 2020–21, down from 43% in 2014–15. For clients seeking treatment for their own drug use, 1 in 10 (11%) were aged 10–19 and over 1 in 4 (26%) were 20–29 (AIHW 2022).
In 2020–21, among clients who sought treatment for their own alcohol or other drug use:
- The most common principal drug of concern for clients aged 10–19 was cannabis (60% of clients), followed by alcohol (15%).
- The most common principal drug of concern for clients aged 20–29 was cannabis (31%), followed by amphetamines (27%) (AIHW 2022, Table SC.10).
- Counselling was the most common main treatment type for clients aged 10–19 (48% of clients) and those aged 20–29 (47%). For clients aged 10–19, the second most common main treatment type was support and case management (20%); for those aged 20–29 it was assessment only (21%) (AIHW 2022, Table SC.19).
A study of the overlap between youth justice supervision and alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2016 showed that young people aged 10–17 who received an alcohol and other drug treatment service were 30 times as likely as the Australian population to be under youth justice supervision (21% compared with 0.7%) (AIHW 2018b).
Dual service clients of AOD treatment service and youth justice supervision were more likely than those who only received AOD treatment services to have multiple treatment episodes (47% compared with 19%) and principal drugs of concern (20% compared with 4%) (AIHW 2018b).