Middle class drinkers at increased risk of dying from alcohol

May 25, 2011 05:04 pm | Updated 05:04 pm IST - London

Various Alcoholic drinks displayed at a five star hotel Bar in New Delhi.

Various Alcoholic drinks displayed at a five star hotel Bar in New Delhi.

A study has found that middle-class drinkers are at a greater risk of dying from alcohol, as they get older, than lower income groups, as they do not realise that they are drinking in excess.

Official figures showed the risk of increased drinking among all socio-economic groups until middle age, but death rates among people in the lower incomes peak in middle age, by which time the chances of dying begin to decrease. On the contrary, the highest-earning members of society continue to put themselves at greater risk in old age because they do not realise what constitutes heavy drinking, experts said.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics showed that death rate among the most advantaged classes, such as lawyers and company bosses, rose steadily from 9.8 deaths per 100,000 men aged 45-49 to 23.5 deaths aged 60 to 64. In contrast people in “routine” jobs such as van drivers and sewing machinists were at the greatest risk in middle age, with the death rate peaking at 52.2 per 100,000 men aged 50-54 and declining afterwards to a rate of 41.1 for those aged 60-64.

"While young people may be going out and drinking to excess on weekends, that pattern starts to tail off later in life,” the Telegraph quoted Prof Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at the University College London, as saying. "Some people will drink nine units a night and think that is moderate consumption because they are not going out and getting plastered, but in terms of their liver that is a harmful level of drinking. A more subtle pattern of heavy drinking, which the individual does not realise constitutes heavy drinking, may have a more prolonged effect. Both sorts of drinking are harmful but they cause different sorts of harm,” he added.

The study was based on figures of alcohol-related deaths, including alcoholic liver disease, fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver, mental disorders due to alcohol use and accidental alcohol poisoning between 2001 and 2003. "We do not fully understand why with equal levels of alcohol abuse the death rates are skewed but we could speculate that issues such as worse diet and social conditions mean that the more terminal harms caused by alcohol occur earlier,” Dr Vivienne Nathanson, Director of Professional Activities for the British Medical Association added.

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