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Alcohol linked to 2.8 million deaths annually worldwide
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Drinking alcohol contributes to nearly 3 million deaths globally and the risk for death increases with the number of alcoholic drinks consumed daily, according to data published in The Lancet.
“Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for death and disability, but its overall association with health remains complex given the possible protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption on some conditions,” Max G. Griswold, MA, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, and colleagues wrote.
Griswold and colleagues analyzed 1,286 studies and data sources to estimate the prevalence of drinking alcohol worldwide and the health risks associated with alcohol, including alcohol-attributed deaths. The researchers defined a standard alcoholic drink as containing 10 g of alcohol.
Data showed that 32.5% of the global population, equating to 2.4 billion people, drink alcohol, including 25% of women and 39% of men. Women drank an average of 0.73 alcoholic drinks daily, while men drank 1.7 drinks.
In 2016, alcohol consumption was the seventh leading risk factor for premature death and disease worldwide and contributed to 2.2% of deaths in women and 6.8% deaths in men, according to the researchers.
However, drinking alcohol was the leading factor for premature death and disease among individuals aged between 15 and 95 years and contributed to 3.8% of deaths in women and 12.2% of deaths in men. Tuberculosis (1.4% of deaths), road injuries (1.2%) and self-harm (1.1%) were the most common alcohol-related causes of death in this age group. Cancers were the most common cause of alcohol-related death among adults aged 50 years and older, accounting for 27.1% of deaths in women and 18.9% of deaths in men.
Alcohol appeared to protect against ischemic heart disease and possibly diabetes and ischemic stroke. However, drinking any amount of alcoholic drinks increased the risk for all other health issues and thus, the adverse effects of alcohol outweighed the protective effect.
Alcohol was not safe to consume at any level, according to the researchers. For example, individuals who consumed one alcoholic drink per day had a 0.5% higher risk for an alcohol-related health problem, compared with those who did not drink at all. The risk for an alcohol-related health problem increased to 7% in individuals who consumed two drinks per day and to 27% in those who had five drinks per day.
“Alcohol poses dire ramifications for future population health in the absence of policy action today,” Emmanuela Gakidou, PhD, coauthor of the study, also from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said in a press release. “Our results indicate that alcohol use and its harmful effects on health could become a growing challenge as countries become more developed, and enacting or maintaining strong alcohol control policies will be vital.”
“Worldwide, we need to revisit alcohol control policies and health programs, and to consider recommendations for abstaining from alcohol,” she added. “These include excise taxes on alcohol, controlling the physical availability of alcohol and the hours of sale, and controlling alcohol advertising. Any of these policy actions would contribute to reductions in population level consumption, a vital step toward decreasing the health loss associated with alcohol use.” – by Alaina Tedesco
Disclosure: Gakidou and Griswold report no relevant financial disclosures. Please see study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
Perspective
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Ramon Bataller, MD, PhD
The Lancet study found that the risk of all-cause mortality, and of cancers specifically, rose with increasing levels of consumption, and the level of consumption that minimized health loss was zero. This is the first big study that raises the issue that one drink per day could be bad. But it’s just one study. Others will need to confirm their findings.
I do think that physicians should talk to their patients about alcohol use. When they do, the important thing is to be motivational and non-judgmental. There’s a stigma and blame associated with alcoholism. If physicians don’t have proper training and skills for how to approach conversations about drinking, patients might feel ashamed, or like they don’t have a trusting relationship with their doctor.
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