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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Worldwide, one in 25 deaths and 5 percent of years lived with disability are attributable to alcohol consumption. Disease is closely related to average volume of alcohol consumed and is strongest in poor people and in those who are marginalized from society.
In the first of three papers to appear in the journal Lancet, Dr Jrgen Rehm, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada, and colleagues, state, "Globally, the effect of alcohol . . . is about the same size as that of smoking in 2000. . . .
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Industrialized production and global marketing have increased both the level of worldwide alcohol consumption and the harms associated with it. Alcohol-use disorders, especially for men, are among the most disabling disease categories for the global burden of disease. And while there have been some positive effects on cardiovascular disease associated with regular drinking, these are far outweighed by the detrimental effects of alcohol on disease and injury.
The authors say that two different dimensions of alcohol consumption affect health: volume of alcohol consumed and patterns of drinking, including binge and heavy drinking.
Some diseases and injuries are caused by alcohol by definition, for example, alcohol-use disorders and alcoholic liver disease -- meaning they would not exist if alcohol were not consumed.
A wide range of other diseases and injuries is deemed to have an alcohol-attributable effect, for example mouth and throat cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, depression, stroke, road traffic accidents, violence and poisoning.
The authors found that average alcohol consumption in Europe is highest, at the equivalent of 11.9 liters of ethanol per person per year. Corresponding figures for North America are 9.4 liters and for the Americas as a whole 8.7 liters. The WHO eastern Mediterranean region was the lowest, at 0.7 liters per year.
The authors are quoted as saying, "In all regions worldwide, men consume more alcohol than do women, although the exact ratio varies, with women in high-income countries consuming a larger proportion than those in low-income countries. In the interpretation of these numbers, we should keep in mind that most of the adult population worldwide actually abstains from drinking alcohol (45 percent of men and 66 percent of women), most of them for their lifetime."
For 2004, the latest year with comparable data available on a global level, 3.8 percent of all global deaths (around 1 in 25) were attributable to alcohol 6.3 percent for men, compared with 1.8 percent for women. Men drink a lot more and are more apt to have heavy drinking sessions. Most of the deaths caused by alcohol were through injuries, cancer, cardiovascular disease and liver cirrhosis.
The proportion of alcohol-attributable deaths was higher in people under 60 years. Europe had the highest proportion of deaths related to alcohol, and within Europe, the former Soviet Union countries had the highest proportion, at around one in seven deaths attributable to alcohol.
The authors conclude: "We face a large and increasing alcohol-attributable burden at a time when we know more than ever about which strategies can effectively ... control alcohol-related harms."
SOURCE: Lancet, June 25, 2009
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