6 Health indicators of alcohol-related harm for minors and all ages
6.1 Alcohol-related hospitalisations
6.2
Summary
6.1 Alcohol-related hospitalisations
Table 6.1 Number and percentage of publicly funded hospitalisations where the primary diagnosis was alcohol related, for those aged 15-19 years, 1996-2003
| 15-17 years | 18-19 years | All alcohol hospitalisations | ||||
| Number | Percent | Number | Percent | Number | Percent | |
| 1996 | 124 | 7.4 | 55 | 3.3 | 1683 | 100.0 |
| 1997 | 116 | 7.0 | 59 | 3.6 | 1653 | 100.0 |
| 1998 | 129 | 7.5 | 61 | 3.5 | 1730 | 100.0 |
| 1999 | 158 | 9.1 | 85 | 4.9 | 1735 | 100.0 |
| 2000 | 205 | 9.8 | 114 | 5.5 | 2087 | 100.0 |
| 2001 | 254 | 10.9 | 116 | 5.0 | 2337 | 100.0 |
| 2002 | 236 | 10.2 | 115 | 4.9 | 2325 | 100.0 |
| 2003 | 170 | 6.9 | 138 | 5.6 | 2457 | 100.0 |
Source: New Zealand Health Information Service.
Table 6.1 shows that the number of publicly funded hospitalisations where the primary diagnosis was alcohol related for those aged 15 to 17 years doubled from 116 in 1997 to 236 in 2002, before decreasing to 170 in 2003. Alcohol-related hospitalisations for this age group comprised between 7% and 11% of all such hospitalisations, with the percentage being slightly higher between 1999 and 2002 than between 1996 and 1998. In 2003, this percentage decreased from this higher level to the lower level of 1996 to 1998.
For those aged 18 to 19 years, the number of publicly funded hospitalisations where the primary diagnosis was alcohol related showed an increasing trend from 55 in 1996 to 138 in 2003 - an increase of 151%. Hospitalisations for this age group comprised between 3% and 6% of all hospitalisations where the primary diagnosis was alcohol related, with the percentage being slightly higher between 1999 and 2003 than between 1996 and 1998.
The number of publicly funded hospitalisations for people of all ages where the primary diagnosis was alcohol related showed an increasing trend between 1998 and 2003. Between 1996 and 2003 the number of such hospitalisations increased by 46% from 1683 to 2457.
The New Zealand Health Information Service advised that from the year 2000, some public hospitals started including in their statistics patients who stayed in their Emergency Departments for more than three hours, but were not actually admitted. These people were not included in earlier years and their inclusion may have contributed to the increases in the years 2000 to 2003.
After the legal minimum legal purchase age was lowered, publicly funded hospitalisations of young people where the primary diagnosis was alcohol related continued the increasing trend since 1997 until 2002. (The proportion of all alcohol-related hospitalisations for young people also increased in the same period.) In 2003, these trends continued for those between 18 and 19 years old, but for those between 15 and 17 both the number and proportion decreased. (Some of the increase may be due to some hospitals including Emergency Department patients from 2000.)
