Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many children and adolescents were admitted to hospital for injuries or illnesses caused by drinking alcohol in the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

The following table contains the sum of the estimated alcohol attributable fractions for admissions for patients aged between 0 – 17 years between 2003 - 2013.

The number of alcohol-related admissions is based on the methodology developed by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO), which uses 48 indicators for alcohol-related illnesses, determining the proportion of a wide range of diseases and injuries that can be partly attributed to alcohol as well as those that are, by definition, wholly attributable to alcohol. Further information on these proportions can be found at

http://www.nwph.net/nwpho/publications/AlcoholAttributableFractions.pdf

Alcohol attributable fractions do not provide a count of episodes with an alcohol related diagnosis or cause code but rather an estimate of the numbers. In addition, partial alcohol attributable fractions are not applicable to children aged under 16 years therefore figures for this age group relate only to wholly-attributable admissions.

The application of the NWPHO methodology has recently been updated but is not currently available from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

Sum of wholly attributable alcohol fractions¹ for patients aged 0 to 15, and wholly and partially attributable alcohol fractions¹ for patients aged 16 or 17 for admissions in each of the last 10 years.

Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector

Source: HES, Health and Social Care Information Centre

Notes:

1. Alcohol–related admissions

The alcohol attributable fraction is set to 1 (100%) where the admission is considered to be entirely due to alcohol, e.g. in the case of alcoholic liver disease - these records are described as wholly alcohol attributable.

The alcohol attributable fraction is set to a value greater than 0 but less than 1 according to the NWPHO definition, e.g. the alcohol fraction of an admission with a primary diagnosis of C00 - malignant neoplasm of lip, where the patient is male and between 65 and 74 is 0.44 - these records are described as partly alcohol attributable.

These wholly and partly attributable fractions can be aggregated to supply an estimate of activity which can be considered wholly or partly attributable to alcohol.

Partly alcohol attributable fractions are not applicable to children under 16. Therefore figures for this age group relate only to wholly-attributable admissions, where the attributable fraction is one.

2. Assessing growth through time (admitted patient care)

HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care.

Note that in all cases the reporting year is from April to March (i.e. 2006-07 is April 2006 to March 2007 inclusive).