1 Trends in Alcohol Consumption and Related Harms for

Over the last 10 years (1994–2003), an estimated 3,320 Australians aged 75–84 yrs (the ‘older-old’) died from alcohol-attributable injury and disease caused by risky/high risk drinking. Almost 35,000 ‘older-old ’ Australians were hospitalised for alcohol-attributable injury and disease over a 9–year period (1993/94–2001/02). Death rates among ‘older-old ’ Australians living in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas have increased steadily since the late 1990s. Tasmania and the ACT show particularly large increases. Most states and territories showed marked increases in hospitalisations between 1993/94 and 2001/02, resulting in an overall Australia-wide increase of over 67%. The most common causes of alcohol-attributable death for the ‘older-old ’ are haemorrhagic stroke and alcoholic liver cirrhosis. Falls are by far the most common cause of alcohol-attributable hospitalisation among this age group Since the late 1990s numbers of deaths occurring among residents of non-metropolitan areas have increased at more than twice the rate of those living in metropolitan areas