Lancet
-
Alcohol is an important determinant of the high and fluctuating adult mortality rates in Russia, but cause-specific detail is lacking. Our case-control study investigated the effects of alcohol consumption on male and female cause-specific mortality. ⋯ UK Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation, International Agency for Research on Cancer, and European Commission Directorate-General for Research.
-
Alcohol consumption has been identified as an important risk factor for chronic disease and injury. In the first paper in this Series, we quantify the burden of mortality and disease attributable to alcohol, both globally and for ten large countries. We assess alcohol exposure and prevalence of alcohol-use disorders on the basis of reviews of published work. ⋯ Disease burden is closely related to average volume of alcohol consumption, and, for every unit of exposure, is strongest in poor people and in those who are marginalised from society. The costs associated with alcohol amount to more than 1% of the gross national product in high-income and middle-income countries, with the costs of social harm constituting a major proportion in addition to health costs. Overall, we conclude that alcohol consumption is one of the major avoidable risk factors, and actions to reduce burden and costs associated with alcohol should be urgently increased.
-
Despite clear evidence of the major contribution alcohol makes to the global burden of disease and to substantial economic costs, focus on alcohol control is inadequate internationally and in most countries. Expansion of industrial production and marketing of alcohol is driving alcohol use to rise, both in emerging markets and in young people in mature alcohol markets. Cost-effective and affordable interventions to restrict harm exist, and are in urgent need of scaling up. ⋯ Factors impeding progress include a failure of political will, unhelpful participation of the alcohol industry in the policy process, and increasing difficulty in free-trade environments to respond adequately at a national level. An effective national and international response will need not only governments, but also non-governmental organisations to support and hold government agencies to account. International health policy, in the form of a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control, is needed to counterbalance the global conditions promoting alcohol-related harm and to support and encourage national action.