Rise in alcohol deaths worldwide down to women drinkers

Canadian researchers have found that as many as 1 in 25 deaths worldwide can be attributed to alcohol and this rise since 2000 is mainly due to increases in the number of women drinking.

Researchers at Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) say worldwide, 1 in 25 deaths are directly attributable to alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable disorders are among the most disabling disease categories within the global burden of disease, especially for men.

Dr. Jürgen Rehm and his colleagues say in contrast to other traditional risk factors for disease, the burden attributable to alcohol lies more with younger people than with the older population.

Dr. Rehm says we now know more than ever about which strategies can effectively and cost-effectively control alcohol-related harms and provided public policy makers act on this information immediately, an enormous reduction in damage from alcohol will be seen.

Dr. Rehm has an optimistic 'glass half full' response to this large and increasing alcohol-attributable burden.

The study shows that Europe has a high proportion of deaths related to alcohol, with 1 in 10 deaths directly attributable and that the average alcohol consumption in Europe in the adult population is higher than in North America - globally, the average is around 7 standard drinks per person per week (despite the fact that most of the adult population worldwide actually abstains from drinking alcohol).

Most of the deaths caused by alcohol were through injuries, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and liver cirrhosis and Dr. Rehm says worldwide the effect of alcohol on burden of disease is about the same size as that of smoking in 2000, but it is relatively greatest in emerging economies - he says global consumption is increasing, especially in the most populous countries of India and China.

Research has shown that policies aimed at reducing harm including better controls on access to alcohol through pricing interventions and outlet density restrictions, as well as more focused strategies such as violence reduction programs in licensed premises, are effective and the CAMH says within health care systems there is screening and brief interventions available for high risk drinkers - CAMH says this has enormous potential to reduce the contribution of alcohol to the onset of cancer and other chronic diseases.

CAMH says there are sound, proven interventions that governments and health providers can use to address the significant social, health and economic problems caused by alcohol.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital, as well as one of the world's leading research centres in the area of addiction and mental health.

The study is published in the current edition of the Lancet.