Objective: To examine the cross-sectional ecologic associations between apparent per-capita alcohol consumption, alcoholrelated hospital admission rates, and the distributions of socio-demographic factors for people residing in 76 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Victoria, during the 1995-1 996 fiscal year. Method: Visitor-adjusted per-capita alcohol consumption was obtained from wholesale sales data from the Liquor Licensing Commission Victoria. Alcoholrelated hospital admission rates were extracted from the Victorian Inpatient Minimum Dataset, and adjusted by the appropriate aetiologic fractions. Summary socio-demographic measures were derived from the 1996 Census. Their associations were analysed using multiple linear regression. Results: Per-capita alcohol consumption ranged from 4 to 14 litres absolute alcohol/ year and alcohol-related hospital admission rates ranged from 5 to 25 per 10,000 residentdyear (external-cause diagnoses) and 8-37 per 10,000 residents/ year (disease diagnoses). Higher levels of per-capita consumption were associated with higher admission rates (rd.45 for external cause diagnoses, r d . 6 6 for disease diagnoses, and r=0.70 for all diagnoses), each per-capita increase of one litrelyear corresponding to increased admission rates of 0.6, 1.5 and 2.1 per 1 0,000 person-years, respectively. Further adjustments by summary sociodemographic measures reduced, but did not modify, the associations between percapita consumption and admission rates. alcohol-related di~abilitiesl~and liver cirrhosis death rates. I0-l3 Moreover, the relationships between consumption and alcohol-related harms are modified by the social and cultural contexts in which drinking takes p l a~e .~~?~~ Our group has been developing aggregate measures of alcohol consumption (based on wholesale sales) and alcohol-related harms within Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Victoria, using existing population-based database^.^' While it is important to provide local government and health planners with timely indicators of alcohol-related problems in LGAs, it is also necessary to determine whether other factors influence the associations between alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms. Conclusions and Implications:This ecologic study focused on a particular category of alcohol-related harmsalcohol-related hospital admission rates in Victorian LGAs. The study's aims were: to measure the associations between alcoholrelated hospital admission rates and percapita consumption in Victorian LGAs; and to determine the influences of sociodemographic factors on these associations. Methods DesignThis study was a cross-sectional ecologic analysis of the associations between alcoholrelated hospital admission rates, apparent Associations between alcohol-related hospital admissions and alcohol consumption per-capita consumption, and summary distributions of sociodemographic factors for residents of 76 LGAs ofvictoria, during the fiscal year 1995-96. Data collectionVisitor-adjusted per-capita alcohol consumption, derived from whole...

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The objective of this study was to examine patterns and yearly trends in alcohol-related hospitalization rates during the period 1987/88-1995/96 for men and women living in metropolitan and rural/remote Victoria. Alcohol-related hospitalizations were extracted from the Victorian Inpatient Minimum Dataset (VMD) for the years 1987/88-1995/96 (public hospitals) and 1993/94-1995/96 (private hospitals), and adjusted by the appropriate aetiological fractions. Sex-specific age-adjusted rates we expressed per 10000 residents/year. During 1993/94-1995/96, alcohol-related hospitalizations comprised 1.0% of all Victorian hospitalizations (about 12000/year), with men accounting for over two-thirds of alcohol-related hospitalizations. Approximately half of the alcohol-related hospitalizations were for disease conditions and the other half for external cause (injury) conditions. About 80% of all alcohol-related hospitalizations were to public hospitals, with the exception of alcohol dependence (63% to private hospitals). Alcohol-related hospitalization rates were generally higher for people living in rural/remote areas compared to urban areas. During 1987/88-1995/96, the age-adjusted alcohol-related hospitalization rates in public hospitals did not change significantly for disease conditions (14.8-14.7 for men and 6.3-6.4 for women) or female external cause conditions (6.7-6.1), but decreased for external cause conditions (18.4-15.5). In private hospitals during 1993/94-1995/96, the age-adjusted alcohol-related hospitalization rates for disease conditions decreased (5.4-4.1 for men and 3.7-3.0 for women) but increased for external cause conditions (1.8-2.4 for men and 1.0-1.2 for women). These patterns and time-trends in Victorian alcohol-related hospitalizations reflect a combination of alcohol-related morbidity levels, hospital admission practices and patterns and levels of service provision. They suggest a potential need to focus on services and programmes in rural/remote Victoria.