title: How much is too much? Alcohol consumption and related harm in the Northern Territory.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To present recent estimates of alcohol consumption and its impact on the health of people in the Northern Territory, and to draw comparisons with Australia as a whole.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive study of alcohol consumption in the NT population, based on sales data and self-report surveys, and alcohol-attributable deaths and hospitalisations among people in the NT in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 financial years using population alcohol-attributable fractions specific to the NT.
  
  
  METHODS
  Per capita consumption of pure alcohol, self-reported level of consumption, and age-standardised rates of death and hospitalisation attributable to alcohol.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Apparent per capita consumption of pure alcohol for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in the NT has been about 14 litres or more per year for many years, about 50% higher than for Australia as a whole. We estimated that there were 120 and 119 alcohol-attributable deaths in the NT in 2004-05 and 2005-06, respectively, at corresponding age-standardised rates of 7.2 and 7.8 per 10 000 adult population. Alcohol-attributable deaths occur in the NT at about 3.5 times the rate they do in Australia generally; rates in non-Aboriginal people were about double the national rate, while they were 9-10 times higher in Aboriginal people. There were 2319 and 2544 alcohol-attributable hospitalisations in the NT in 2004-05 and 2005-06, respectively, at corresponding rates of 146.6 and 157.7 per 10 000 population (more than twice the national rate).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In recent years, alcohol consumption and consequent alcohol-attributable deaths and hospitalisations for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the NT have occurred at levels far higher than elsewhere in Australia.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disease Control, Northern Territory Department of Health and Families, Darwin, NT, Australia. steven.skov@nt.gov.au
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Skov
authors.forename: Tanya N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Chikritzhs
authors.forename: Shu Q
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pircher
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Whetton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015876:Northern Territory / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult