Sex Differences in Alcohol Attributable Mortality in Poland, 2002-2018

Abstract

We study patterns and developments in sex differences in alcohol-attributable mortality (AAM) in Poland over the years 2002-2018. Sex gap and sex-specific mortality patterns according to age, educational level and urbanrural settlements are contrasted with findings for other developed countries. Premature AAM of the population 20-64 years old is quantified with age-standardized alcohol-attributable mortality rates (AASMR) by sex and selected characteristics. For the age pattern, we study the gender gap in alcohol-attributable crude death rates for 10-year age groups. Data comes from the World Health Organization database or directly from the Polish Central Statistical Office. In 2002, in Poland, men died 9-times more often than women from causes attributable to alcohol consumption. As a result of faster growth in AASMR among women, the relative sex gap halved between 2002 and 2018. However, this relative change was accompanied by an increase in the absolute gap, resulting from a larger increase in the total number of deaths attributed to alcohol consumption among men than women. Due to the substantially higher alcohol consumption and mortality among men, differences in AAM according to age, education and place of residence, and their changes over the study years, are much more pronounced for men than women. Polish men and women are characterized by similar patterns and developments of alcohol-attributable mortality in the study years. Different from that observed for other developed countries narrowing the sex gap, we observe in Poland perseverance of male elevated AAM. An important contribution of the study is the evidence that to understand differences between men and women in AAM and their developments, we need to study both relative and absolute sex gaps.