How much is too much? Alcohol consumption and related harm in the Northern Territory.

Objective: To present recent estimates of alcohol consumption and its impact on the health of people in the Northern Territory, and to draw comparisons with Australia as a whole.

Design, Setting And Participants: Descriptive study of alcohol consumption in the NT population, based on sales data and self-report surveys, and alcohol-attributable deaths and hospitalisations among people in the NT in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 financial years using population alcohol-attributable fractions specific to the NT.

Main Outcome Measures: Per capita consumption of pure alcohol, self-reported level of consumption, and age-standardised rates of death and hospitalisation attributable to alcohol.