Alcohol Deaths

The annual Alcohol-Specific Deaths, Northern Ireland release presents statistics on the most recent official death registration data available on alcohol-specific mortality across Northern Ireland (NI). Alcohol death figures were first published in Northern Ireland in 2001. Figures in this release relate to deaths registered in Northern Ireland that are known to be direct consequences of alcohol misuse.

The methodology for selecting alcohol related deaths was revised in 2017, following a consultation led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to develop a UK-wide definition of alcohol-related deaths.

The new definition includes conditions known to be exclusively caused by alcohol (that is, wholly attributable causes) and excludes conditions where only a proportion of the deaths are caused by alcohol (that is, partially attributable causes). Compared with that used previously, the new definition includes several additional wholly attributable conditions. Details of difference is available in Table 1.

Table 1: Conditions included in the new definition of alcohol-specific deaths and the previous NS definition of alcohol-related deaths^1,2

Condition	ICD-10 Code	Alcohol-specific	Alcohol-related
Wholly attributable conditions
Alcohol-induced pseudo-Cushing's syndrome²	E24.4	X
Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol	F10	X	X
Degeneration of nervous system due to alcohol	G31.2	X	X
Alcoholic polyneuropathy	G62.1	X	X
Alcoholic myopathy²	G72.1	X
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy	I42.6	X	X
Alcoholic gastritis	K29.2	X	X
Alcoholic liver disease	K70	X	X
Alcohol-induced acute pancreatitis²	K85.2	X
Alcohol induced chronic pancreatitis	K86.0	X	X
Fetal alcohol syndrome (dysmorphic)²	Q86.0	X
Excess alcohol blood levels²	R78.0	X
Accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol	X45	X	X
Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to alcohol	X65	X	X
Poisoning by and exposure to alcohol, undetermined intent	Y15	X	X
Partially attributable conditions
Chronic hepatitis, not elsewhere classified	K73		X
Fibrosis and cirrhosis of liver	K74.0-K74.2, K74.6-K74.9		X
Notes:
1. The conditions included in each definition are defined using codes from the International Classification of Diseases (10th Revision; ICD-10)
2. Wholly attributable conditions that have been added to the new definition of alcohol-specific deaths

Alcohol-Specific Deaths Data

Historical Alcohol-Related Deaths Data

Information Papers