The high health burden from alcohol in New Zealand and the need for an appropriate government response.

This issue of the Journal features two articles on alcohol. The article 1 by Connor et al details the large health burden from alcohol in New Zealand at an estimated 5.4% of all deaths under 80 years old (around 800 premature deaths annually). They also estimated 6.5% of all healthy life lost among 0–79 year olds in 2004 was attributable to alcohol (a loss of around 28,000 disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs]—although balanced against this was around 7000 DALYs averted). Furthermore, the analysis provides additional evidence that alcohol use contributes to health inequalities between Māori and non-Māori and between men and women.