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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 Alcohol-attributable deaths worldwide have increased since 2000, mainly because of an increase in the number of women who drink, the study said. Most of the deaths resulted from injuries, cancer, cardiovascular disease and liver cirrhosis.
The researchers found that younger people carry a higher alcohol-associated disease burden than older people. Of all the years that people lived with a disability caused by alcohol, 34 percent were among people ages 15 to 29, 31 percent among those ages 30 to 44 and 22 percent among people ages 45 to 59.
When they compared the costs attributable to alcohol by income level, Rehm and his colleagues found that they were $358 a person in Scotland and $837 a person in the United States, which they said represented high-income nations. By comparison, costs attributable to alcohol were $122 a person in Thailand and $524 a person in South Korea, chosen by the researchers to represent middle-income countries.
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"Globally, the effect of alcohol on burden of disease is about the same size as that of smoking in 2000, but it is greatest in developing countries," the researchers wrote. "This finding is not surprising since global consumption is increasing, especially in the most populous countries of India and China."
"We face a large and increasing alcohol-attributable burden at a time when we know more than ever about which strategies can effectively and cost-effectively control alcohol-related harm," they wrote.
The study, the first in a series of three papers on alcohol, appears in this week's issue of The Lancet. The next papers will "discuss ways in which to decrease this burden," the researchers said.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has more about alcohol and health.
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-- Robert Preidt
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