Alcohol-related Chronic Disease Deaths by County, New Mexico, 2019-2023

Why Is This Important?

Chronic conditions account for more than half of all alcohol-related deaths in New Mexico. These chronic conditions include alcohol-related chronic liver disease which accounts for about one out of three of all alcohol-related deaths in New Mexico. Chronic alcohol-related deaths may be more associated with chronic heavy drinking (defined as drinking, on average, more than two drinks per day for men and more than one drink per day for women) than with binge drinking, but both forms of excessive alcohol consumption led to chronic alcohol-related deaths. In New Mexico, chronic alcohol related deaths increased by 12.5% between 2000 and 2013, and then 69.6% between 2013 and 2020. It is also important to remember that these chronic disease deaths represent only the tip of the iceberg of health and social problems associated with chronic heavy alcohol use in New Mexico. For every alcohol-related death, there are many living persons (and their families) impaired by serious morbidity and reduced quality of life due to chronic alcohol abuse. Please see the latest New Mexico Substance Use State Epidemiology Profile for more information about alcohol and other substance impact on New Mexcio.

Definition

Alcohol-related chronic disease death is defined as the number of chronic disease deaths attributed to alcohol per 100,000 population. The alcohol-related chronic disease death rates reported here are based on definitions and alcohol-attributable fractions from the CDC's Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) website (http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/ardi/Homepage.aspx). ARDI updated its definition last in 2022 that created adjustments in previously reported data.

Data Notes

Data Sources

• New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
  (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.
  (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/)
• New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
  (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

Data Issues

• Death Certificate Data

  Death certificate information is submitted electronically by funeral directors, who obtain demographic information from an informant, a close family member of the decedent. The NMDOH Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS) does annual trainings for funeral directors and local registrars and the death certificate information goes through extensive scrutiny for completeness and consistency. The cause of death is certified by the decedent's physician or the physician that attended the death. Accidental and suspicious deaths are certified by the Office of the Medical Investigator. When death certificates are received the cause of death literals are keyed into software locally by the BVRHS, then shipped to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) where they are machine coded into ICD-10 cause-of-death codes. NCHS returns the ICD-10 codes to BVRHS where the death records are updated.

• New Mexico Population Estimates

  All population estimates apply to July 1 of the selected year. These estimates are considered the most accurate estimates for the state of New Mexico and should match those found on the University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies website. Estimates include decimal fractions. Census tract population estimates were summed to produce County and Small Area population estimates. Population estimate totals may vary due to rounding. Population estimates for previous years are occasionally revised as new information becomes available. When publishing trend data, always be sure that your rates for earlier years match current rates on NM-IBIS that have been calculated with the most up-to-date population estimates.

Health Topic Pages Related to: Alcohol - Alcohol-related Chronic Disease Deaths

• Alcohol Use
• Chronic Diseases and Conditions
• Leading Causes of Death
• Mental Health
• Substance Use