This dashboard release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) combines alcohol consumption and harms information from a variety of sources including NHS hospital admissions data, National Records of Scotland mortality data and Scottish Government survey data.

Main points for 2023/2024:

• In 2023/24, the European Age-sex standardised rate of wholly attributable alcohol hospital admissions to general acute hospitals was 548 per 100,000 population and was 3% higher than the rate in 2022/23 (532 per 100,000).
• In 2023/24, males (539 patients per 100,000 population) were two times more likely than females (233 patients per 100,000 population) to be admitted to hospitals for conditions wholly attributable to alcohol. During the same period, people in the most deprived areas (942 patients per 100,000 population), as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, were six times more likely to be admitted to hospitals for conditions wholly attributable to alcohol than those in the least deprived areas (143 patients per 100,000 population).
• In 2023, the European Age-sex standardised rate of wholly attributable alcohol deaths was 22.6 per 100,000 population and was broadly the same as the rate in 2022 (22.5 per 100,000).
• In 2023, the mortality rate for conditions wholly attributable to alcohol in males (32 per 100,000 population) was two times higher than the rate observed in females (14 per 100,000 population). During the same period, the mortality rate for conditions wholly attributable to alcohol in people residing in the most deprived areas (54 per 100,000 population) was six times higher than for those residing in the least deprived areas (9 per 100,000 population).

Alcohol health harms can be characterised as those which are wholly, or partially, attributable to alcohol consumption. Harms which are directly, and entirely, related to alcohol consumption are referred to as wholly attributable i.e. they only occur due to alcohol consumption. Partially attributable harms are those which alcohol consumption is one of a range of possible causative factors. Therefore these figures report a more expansive measure of alcohol harms and deaths compared to the National Records for Scotland alcohol specific deaths. An example of this is liver cancer, where harmful alcohol consumption increases the risk, but there are other multiple risks that may also increase the risk of liver cancer. Further information on other data reported and their sources can be found in the dashboard's Data sources and methods section.