Publishedby the Department of Health, this booklet provides summary statistics on health and health care in Ireland over the past 10 years.1 The data are organised in six chapters ranging from population, life expectancy and health status to health care delivery, staffing and costs. In the Introduction, the authors comment:
In the area of health determinants, lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking, levels of physical activity and obesity continue to be issues which have the potential to jeopardise many of the health gains achieved in recent years. Furthermore, inequalities in health are closely linked with wider social determinants including living and working conditions, issues of service access, and cultural and physical environments. Taken together with an ageing population, adverse trends, if not addressed now, will lead to an unhealthy and costly future.
Alcohol and smoking
Figure 1 shows overall trends in alcohol and cigarette consumption over the last 20 years. Having levelled off over the last few years, the data for alcohol show an increase in consumption in 2014, following a drop in 2013. With respect to cigarettes, the declining figures based on excise duty data need to be treated with caution owing to the effects of cross-border and illegal sales.
Source: Health in Ireland (2015)Figure 2.10, based on data from Revenue Commissioners and CSO
Note: Alcohol is measured in terms of pure alcohol consumed, based on sales of beer, cider, wine and spirits. Tobacco is measured in terms of sales of cigarettes recorded by the Revenue Commissioners.
Figure 2 shows the percentage of adults who are daily smokers or are overweight and obese by their educational attainment. In both cases, the rates of daily smoking and persons classified as overweight and obese are lower among those who attained a tertiary-level qualification.
Source: Health in Ireland (2015) Figure 2.11, based on data in the Healthy Ireland Survey 2015
The number of people who drink more than six standard units of alcohol at least once a month, broken down by gender and social class, can be seen in Figure 3. It shows that men and those in the lower social group are more likely to engage in risky single-occasion drinking at least once per month.
Figure 3 Risky single-occasion drinking (6 or more standard units) at least once per month in the previous 12 months, by gender and socio-economic classification, 2015
Source: Health in Ireland (2015) Figure 2.12, based on data in the Healthy Ireland Survey 2015
Notes: (1) Risky single-occasion drinking is defined as six or more standard drinks. (2) Sample refers to those who regularly drink alcohol (n=5,694) according to the Healthy Ireland survey and excludes those who never drink alcohol/abstain (n=1,845)
The results of the Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey 2014, when compared to the HBSC survey of four years earlier, show that the proportion of Irish children aged 10–17 years who are current smokers or who have ever been really drunk have both declined over the four year period (Figure 4). A review of the trend in the level of lifetime drunkenness among Irish school-aged children between 1998 and 2014 shows that it decreased over the 20-year period and most markedly among 13–15-year-olds.2 This overall trend is welcome, especially among younger teenagers, as the immaturity of their brains makes them particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of alcohol. Delaying initiation of drinking also decreases the likelihood of developing alcohol dependence in later life.
Source: Health in Ireland (2015) Figure 2.13, based on Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (2014)
Treatment for problem drug use
Between 2005 and 2014 the number of cases treated for problem drug use in Ireland increased almost 52 per cent (Table 1). The number of new entrants into treatment also increased, but by a larger proportion (70%). The authors of the most recent bulletin on NDTRS and CTL data on treated problem drug use,3 which revealed a similar 52 per cent increase between 2005 and 2010, commented that the ‘clear spread and increase in treated drug use throughout the country’ reflected ‘not only the extent of problem drug use but also an increase in treatment availability and compliance with the NDTRS’, an observation which is still pertinent today.
Table 1 Number of cases in treatment for problem drug use and rate per 100,000 aged 15–64 years, 2005–2014
Sources: Healthy Ireland (2015) Figure 4.6
* Central Treatment List (n=9,296) and National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS) (n= 9,046)
ʈ NDTRS only
Notes: (1) Each record in the NDTRS database relates to a treatment episode (a case) and not to a person. This means that the same person could be counted more than once in the same calendar year if he/she had more than one treatment episode in that year. Additionally, the same case may appear in both the CTL data and the NDTRS data as there is no unique identifier yet in Ireland. (2) Both the CTL and the NDTRS data exclude those treated in prison. (3) NDTRS data for 2014 is preliminary. (4) NDTRS does not include cases treated for alcohol as a main problem drug.
(Brigid Pike)
1 Department of Health (2015) Health in Ireland: key trends 2015. Dublin: Department of Health. http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/24955/
2 Mongan D (2016) Health behaviour in school-aged children Drugnet Ireland (56) 14–16. http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/25144/
3 Bellerose D, Carew AM and Lyons S (2011) Trends in treated problem drug use in Ireland 2005–2010. HRB Trends Series 12. Dublin: Health Research Board. http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/16381/
