Mortality among Female Alcoholics

Abstract

The investigation group is composed of the 83 female alcoholics who, in the period 1961–68, were subjected to their first compulsory treatment by the Temperance Board in Malmö. Their socioeconomic status was low. In many cases the women were heavily disadvantaged, socially. By the end of 1973, 15 of them (18%) had died: 8 through accidents, 4 by suicide, 1 of liver cirrhosis, 1 of myocardial infarction, and 1 of cerebral haemorrhage. General and cause-specific mortality was calculated on the basis of age-specific risk tables for females. The ratio of observed to expected mortality was: for all causes of death fully 7:1, for accidents 70:1, for suicides 30:1, and for other causes 1.6: 1. Those who died as a result of suicide were on average younger than the other female alcoholics at the first compulsory treatment, and those who died of other causes were on average older. All who died by suicide had earlier made many attempts at suicide. In fully half of all known attempts at suicide, violent methods had been employed.