June 29, 2016
Alcohol cancer link hitting Maori harder
A society awash in alcohol is making Maori more vulnerable to cancer.
That’s one of the implications of a new study by University of Otago Preventive and Social Medicine Professor Jennie Connor that shows nearly a third of all alcohol-related deaths in New Zealand are due to cancer.
Professor Doug Sellman from Alcohol Action says many of the cancers are preventable if alcohol use could be significantly reduced.
He says while abstinence rates among Maori are higher than the general population, those who do drink tend to drink more, which is reflected in the cancer statistics.
"There were no differences between men and women in terms of alcohol-related cancers but there is a Maori/ non-Maori difference to the extent that there are 10.1 years loss of life for non-Maori and it's 12.7 years for the Maori who get these cancers," Professor Sellman says.
He says New Zealand’s excessive commercialisation of alcohol needs to be tackled through cutting back alcohol marketing, increasing the price, reducing accessibility and raising the purchase age.
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