SynthesisBMC public health2026
A systematic review of the association between alcohol-related deaths and area-level socioeconomic deprivation and other geographic characteristics in high-income countries.
Synthesis in BMC public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere are substantial inequalities in alcohol-related mortality related to individual-level education, income, and employment status, but less is known about the association between alcohol-related mortality and the geographic characteristics of an area. This systematic review aims to explore whether area-level features, including area-level measures of socioeconomic status, are associated with alcohol-attributable mortality.
methodsWe systematically searched Medline (Ovid), CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Emerald Insight, and Epistemonikos databases (2004 - 2024), supplemented with searches of grey literature, for primary quantitative studies conducted in high-income countries. Eligible studies examined associations between alcohol-attributable morality and one or more geographic characteristic. Studies were quality appraised using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies, the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme for cohort studies, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute checklist was adapted for assessing ecological studies. The findings were synthesised narratively. PROSPERO ID: CRD42024499928.
resultsThe searches identified 73 eligible studies covering mortality from a range of alcohol-attributable conditions, including chronic alcohol-specific conditions (e.g. alcohol-related liver disease) and alcohol-related incidents (e.g. road traffic collisions, suicides). Study quality was found to be good in most cases. Urban-rural location was the most common exposure and alcohol-specific mortality was the most common outcome measured in the included studies. Of the 34 studies examining area-level socioeconomic deprivation, all studies found a positive association between deprived areas and alcohol-attributable mortality. Of the 49 studies that examined urban-rural location, 26 (53.1%) found a positive association between rural location and alcohol-attributable mortality. Fourteen studies (28.6%) found urban location significant. Rural locations were particularly associated with alcohol-related road traffic collisions and suicides.
conclusionsGreater area-level deprivation and rurality are associated with higher rates of alcohol-related mortality.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.