You can expect new attacks from anti-alcohol activists in the wake of a World Health Organization report that found more than 3 million people worldwide died as a result of harmful use of alcohol in 2016. This represents 1 in 20 deaths, WHO said, adding more than three quarters of these deaths were among men. Overall, the harmful use of alcohol causes more than 5% of the global disease burden.
WHO’s Global status report on alcohol and health 2018 presents a comprehensive picture of alcohol consumption and the disease burden attributable to alcohol worldwide. It also describes what countries are doing to reduce this burden.
“Far too many people, their families and communities suffer the consequences of the harmful use of alcohol through violence, injuries, mental health problems and diseases like cancer and stroke,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “It’s time to step up action to prevent this serious threat to the development of healthy societies.”
Of all deaths attributable to alcohol, 28% were due to injuries, such as those from traffic crashes, self-harm and interpersonal violence; 21% due to digestive disorders; 19% due to cardiovascular diseases, and the remainder due to infectious diseases, cancers, mental disorders and other health conditions.
Despite some positive global trends in the prevalence of heavy episodic drinking and number of alcohol-related deaths since 2010, the overall burden of disease and injuries caused by the harmful use of alcohol is unacceptably high, particularly in the European Region and the Region of Americas.
Globally an estimated 237 million men and 46 million women suffer from alcohol-use disorders with the highest prevalence among men and women in the European region (14.8% and 3.5%) and the Region of Americas (11.5% and 5.1%). Alcohol-use disorders are more common in high-income countries.
Distilled Spirits Council responded to the study, saying the distilled spirits industry is “strongly opposed to excessive alcohol consumption and underage drinking in any form.
“We support the WHO’s goal to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, however, we are concerned that some policy recommendations such as increasing alcohol taxes are misguided and don’t effectively address harmful consumption.|
The Council said it meaningful progress can be made through partnerships and evidence-based solutions that target problem drinkers. In the United States, rates of alcohol use disorder among adults, underage drinking and drunk driving fatalities are at historic lows. The distilled spirits industry has contributed to this progress through partnerships promoting tough law enforcement, education and targeted intervention.
Global Consumption Predicted to Increase in Next 10 Years
An estimated 2.3 billion people are current drinkers. Alcohol is consumed by more than half of the population in three WHO regions – the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific. Europe has the highest per capita consumption in the world, even though its per capita consumption has decreased by more than 10% since 2010. Current trends and projections point to an expected increase in global alcohol per capita consumption in the next 10 years, particularly in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions and the Region of the Americas.