KENORA – Some numbers on the Northwestern Health Unit’s online Alcohol Trends Dashboard are concerning to Dr. Kit Young Hoon, the unit’s medical officer of health.
“I am deeply concerned about the impact that alcohol use has on the health of the population in our region. Our rates of consumption, ER visits and hospitalizations related to alcohol, and rates of youth consumption are all statistically higher than the rest of Ontario,” Young Hoon said Thursday.
“Emergency room visits for conditions entirely caused by alcohol is more than 13 times higher (in the health unit’s region) than the provincial rate,” she told Dougall Media.
“And hospitalizations for conditions entirely caused by alcohol are almost five times higher than the provincial rate,” she continued.
Conditions entirely caused by alcohol include alcoholic cardiomyopathy and cirrhosis, she said, “but there are a number of conditions where there is increased risk from alcohol consumption, and that impacts the emergency room visits.
“So the statistics you're seeing on the dashboard does not include things like motor vehicle accidents, unintentional injuries, violence, sexually transmitted infections and cancer. Those are all of increased risk due to alcohol.”
The numbers on the dashboard on the health unit’s website are therefore “a bit of an underestimate of the true impact of the harms of alcohol on the health-care sector,” she said.
The latest research outlined in Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health: Final Report indicates that even moderate alcohol consumption is linked to more than 200 health conditions.
Having two or more drinks a week increases the risk for some types of cancer, and more than six a week increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, according to the guidance.
People should consider the risks and act accordingly, Young Hoon said.
“The general key message from the guidance documents is for the people of Canada to review their risk based on how much they consume and consider reducing their risk by reducing the amount of alcohol they drink,” she said.
“And that could be small ways of reducing the amount of alcohol you drink.”
For example, she said, a person could consume a non-alcoholic beverage between alcoholic drinks or choose drinks with lower alcohol content.
“And then also other things such as avoiding pre-drinking before going out” and choosing activities in which there is no drinking, she said.
“So those are just some tips that might help people think about alcohol as they reflect on the risks that are associated with consuming alcohol,” said Young Hoon.
