Do You Really Know Jack (Daniels)? Potential Underestimation in Alcohol-Attributed Mortality on Population Level: Findings From the German National Cohort Mortality Follow-up

Ronny Westerman , Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)
Jana Förster, Georgetown University
Andrea Werdecker, Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)
Ulrich O. Mueller, Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)

Harmful alcohol consumption and premature alcohol-attributed mortality on population level are major concerns for public health research. Studies showed possible underestimation of alcohol consumption estimated in national self-report surveys. Large cohorts like the German National Cohort (GNC) may be also affected from specific underestimation in noxious alcohol use or expect lower premature alcohol attributed mortality compared to the general population of Germany. For this study we computed alcohol attributed-fraction mortality estimates from original death certificates information by deceased participants of the German National Cohort for the period 2014-2018. These estimates will be compared with the official cause of death statistics from Germany. As the major outcome the alcohol-attributed-fraction mortality estimates in GNC should be lower compared to the general population of Germany. Explanations should be the impact of the lower level of deprivation in GNC which is caused by healthy selectivity effect mostly known from Cohort studies, a different cause of death profile and even inter-regional disparity.

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 Presented in Session 11. Health & Mortality 2