Health & Illness

Indicators:

• Smoking prevalence

• Alcohol consumption

• Hospitalization rates

Trend:

• Improving for tobacco

• Deteriorating for alcohol

Trend at a Glance

In BC, smoking prevalence is steadily decreasing while alcohol consumption is increasing. Parallel to to this trend, hospitalizations for tobacco-related illnesses are declining while hospitalizations for alcohol-related illnesses are increasing.

Alcohol consumption in BC is increasing faster than in the rest of Canada. In the most recent year available, alcohol consumption in Canada remained steady while in BC it declined slightly for the first time in a decade, coinciding with the recent economic downturn. BC's alcohol consumption can be expected to stabilise or continue to increase as the wider economy recovers over the next few years.

Public policy interventions for tobacco seem to be having a positive effect on smoking prevelence and the reduction of related harms. Policy interventions related to alcohol may be having the opposite effect.

To reverse the trend relative to alcohol and sustain the trend relative to tobacco, available evidence suggests that policy makers should:

• introduce alcohol pricing policies that ensure a minimum price per standard drink and that create price incentives that promote the production and consumption of products with lower alcohol content
• promote low risk drinking guidelines together with accessible screening and brief interventions that promote responsibility in the use of alcohol
• increase support for tobacco cessation