TRENTO. Trentino, land of great wines. But also of heavy beer drinkers: according to data from the Ministry of Health, only in Calabria is beer appreciated more than in the province. At least in the male field: 70.1% (72.4% the Calabrian figure, the highest in Italy) of those who consume alcohol do so by drinking – even – beer. Which among women is appreciated by 4 out of 10 non-drinkers, as well as wine (39.9%), consumed by six out of ten Trentino people (60.4%).
Spirits are chosen by 39% of male drinkers and 18.8% of women, more or less like bitters (39.6% and 14.1%).
Whatever the product, in general the people of Trentino confirm themselves as lovers of Bacchus, hops and spirits: in the province, 78.4% of the male population consumes alcohol (77.2% the Italian average) and 58.7% of the female population (56.2% in Italy). And, so far, nothing wrong with that.
The problem, as in many other things in life, is represented by excesses: the data collected and processed by the Directorate General for Health Prevention of the Ministry of Health and relating to 2020 say that in Trentino the mortality rates from totally alcohol-attributable diseases are well above the national average. Especially, surprisingly, among women where the rate of 2.33 (number of deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants) is the highest in the whole country. Followed by Umbria (1.45) and Liguria (1.42).
Among men, the situation is no longer rosy, on the contrary, with a death rate per 100 thousand inhabitants equal to 5.81, even if looking at the rest of Italy there are those who are much worse: Valle d’Aosta (12.12 ), Molise (8.14), Alto Adige (7.35).
The criticalities also emerge from the access to the emergency room for problems totally attributable to alcohol: in Italy in 2020 there were 29,362 (71% with male patients, 29% female cases). Percentages that are also reflected in the province, with women who had to resort to medical care which accounted for less than a third of cases. There were 31 accesses for women, against 107 for men.
Not to be underestimated, however, the data relating to under 18s: in this case the gender difference vanishes: five cases involving underage boys, four in the case of girls.
Talking about mortality or hospitalization in the emergency room means focusing on extreme situations: which are the daughters, however – say the statistics of the Ministry – of a problematic relationship with alcohol that is still widespread: in Trentino 31.8% of men who consume alcohol and 9.5% of women are defined at risk: that is, they consume more than three alcoholic units per day (two, in the case of women), mainly between meals.
Data in line with the national ones as regards women (9.4%) but much more worrying as regards men, with 22.9% of drinkers at risk in Italy.
The phenomenon of binge drinking – the intake of large quantities of alcohol in a short period of time (5-6 units for men 4-5 for women) often with the specific desire to get drunk – practically twice as common among men is in Trentino, compared to the national average (22.5% versus 11.4%) and more pronounced among women (5.2% versus 3.9%).
Beyond the more delicate situations – numerous and not to be underestimated – it must be said that the relationship of Trentino with alcohol is largely balanced: looking at the simple threshold beyond which alcohol consumption is defined as excess (i.e. potentially harmful compared to a correct lifestyle: there is talk of exceeding two alcoholic units per day for an adult man and one for an adult woman) the Trentino data are better than the national average: in the male population the percentage of non-abstainers of excess consumers is 12.5% (compared to 14.2% nationally), while among women in Trentino the percentage is 5.4% compared to one percentage point higher than the national average (6.4%).