NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Northwest Territories residents are hospitalized for alcohol and drug abuse more than any other mental health problem, with associated injuries accounting for more than 40 per cent of health-care costs for adult NWT residents, a new report found.
Dr. Andre Corriveau: A lot of the preventable hospitalizations are related to alcohol. |
"When measured by the estimated cost of hospitalization, alcohol and drugs are more often a secondary factor than the primary reason for admission," the report stated.
It further states that alcohol and drug abuse affects "youth to seniors, men more so than women, the aboriginal population more so than the non-aboriginal population, and the population outside of Yellowknife more so than inside Yellowknife.
The report stated that alcohol and drug issues contributed to 68 per cent of mental health related hospitalizations from 2008 to 2011.
That translates into 49 per cent - or half - of all mental health costs for that time period.
"It is complicated, but you can see that alcohol and drugs, mainly alcohol, is a very large area within that area of mental health," said David MacDonald, senior health analyst with the department of health and social services.
The study, published by the department, is the third report on hospitalization published since 2000.
It highlights the top five reasons for hospitalization for eight different age groups, from infancy up to age 75 and beyond.
In adults 45 to 64 years old, hospitalizations due to drugs and alcohol made up 45 per cent of all mental health costs.
Injuries and poisonings were number two on the list of the top five most common hospitalizations for adults. However, alcohol was again cited as a contributing factor.
"Injuries and substance abuse are often related issues," the report stated. "Nearly a third of patients hospitalized with an alcohol or drug diagnosis, also had suffered an injury."
Assaults were the primary cause of injury hospitalizations in youth and adults up to 64 years old.
Dr. Andre Corriveau, the territory's chief medical health officer, said alcohol consumption can contribute to other incidents leading to injury, such as driving a motor vehicle without seatbelts, failing to wear helmets and not wearing personal floatation devices while boating.
"We have fully identified that a lot of the preventable hospitalizations are related to alcohol," Corriveau said.
The report also found that residents of communities outside Yellowknife are hospitalized for alcohol and drug related issues more often than those who live inside the city.
Corriveau said one of the reasons might be because people medevaced from communities are sometimes kept in the hospital rather than being released as outpatients the way Yellowknife residents would.
"If someone is sent out on a medevac from a small community, they may be kept under observation," he said.
Corriveau said binge drinking patterns in some smaller communities could also be to blame.
"I don't necessarily have hard data, but we have some anecdotal evidence that binge drinking is more common in communities where alcohol comes in more sporadically," he said. "Even if the community is dry, if a large amount of alcohol comes in, there is going to be binge drinking that will lead to more risks in terms of injuries and violence."
Alcohol consumption also produces long-term health effects, Corriveau said.
"A large number of cancers are attributable to exposure to alcohol on a chronic basis and liver disease more generally," he said. "There are many aspects of wellness and disease that are impacted by the consumption of alcohol."
Injuries among adults aged 45 to 64 costs approximately $3.1 million per year to treat in hospital, the report found.
"Every injury is a very costly event in the Northwest Territories context because people often have to be flown out of their community for a proper assessment," Corriveau said.
Mental health costs for the same age group were about $2.3 million per year, with 45 per cent of those costs dedicated to hospitalizations resulting from alcohol or drugs.
Corriveau said the report underlines the need for more preventative programs in the territory, including focusing on youth and early childhood programming.
"It highlights the whole area of mental health and addictions, that consume a lot of services as well, are very costly and often could be prevented if we had a better focus on some of the things that predispose people for addictions and mental health problems," he said.
MacDonald said he agreed.
"It tells me that working toward targeting alcohol and drug programs to help reduce the prevalence of addictions would go a long way to reduce some, maybe not all of them, but quite a few of those hospitalizations," he said.
Corriveau said the report also puts emphasis on potential areas of focus, such as injury prevention.
"I was surprised by how little impact we've had over the last 10 years on some of those preventable conditions," he said. "It speaks to the need to either do something different, or something better, to really make a difference."
The report is available on the health department's website.
