The EU is the heaviest-drinking area globally, with 7 of the 10 countries with the highest per-capita alcohol consumption located within the EU. Despite progress in reducing alcohol consumption and related harms, the Region continues to face significant challenges, including high rates of alcohol-related deaths, particularly from cancer. The report highlights the urgent need to accelerate actions globally towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.5 by 2030 by reducing alcohol and drug consumption and improving access to quality treatment for substance use disorders. The Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders presents a comprehensive overview of alcohol consumption, alcohol-related… WHO has identified that the most cost-effective actions to reduce the harmful use of alcohol include increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages, enforcing restrictions on exposure to alcohol advertising, and restrictions on the physical availability of retailed alcohol.
This disorder also involves having to drink more to get the same effect or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking. Alcohol use disorder includes a level of drinking that’s sometimes called alcoholism. The adverse consequences of alcohol consumption include the negative consequences of drinking on individuals other than the drinkers themselves, including… Alcohol consumption contributes to 2.6 million deaths each year globally as well as to the disabilities and poor health of millions of people.
In 2019, 38% of current drinkers had engaged in heavy episodic drinking, defined as consuming at least 60g of pure alcohol on one or more occasions in the preceding month – roughly equivalent to 4 or 5 glasses of wine, bottles of beer or servings of spirits. Too much alcohol affects your speech, muscle coordination and vital centers of your brain. A heavy drinking binge may even cause a life-threatening coma or death. This is of particular concern when you’re taking certain medications that also depress the brain’s function. Drinking moderately if you’re otherwise healthy may be a risk you’re willing to take.
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For women, more than three drinks on any day or more than seven drinks a week is heavy drinking. For men, heavy drinking means more than four drinks on any day or more than 14 drinks a week. In the past, moderate drinking was thought to be linked with a lower risk of dying from heart disease and possibly diabetes.
- This emphasizes the importance of protecting policy-making processes from industry interference that aims to delay or weaken public health measures that would reduce alcohol consumption.
- Be sure to ask your healthcare professional about what’s right for your health and safety.
- That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men.
- To combat this, WHO advocates for transparency in policy development, the exclusion of the alcohol industry from policy discussions, and the implementation of regulations to limit the industry’s influence on public health.
Global Information System on Alcohol and Health
Here, over 200 million people in the Region are at risk of developing alcohol-attributable cancer. Alcohol is a toxic and psychoactive substance with dependence producing properties. In many of today’s societies, alcoholic beverages are a routine part of the social landscape for many in the population.
When it comes to alcohol, if you don’t drink, don’t start for health reasons. During pregnancy, drinking may cause the unborn baby to have brain damage and other problems. Heavy drinking also has been linked to intentional injuries, such as suicide, as well as accidental injury and death. This manual is written to help primary health care workers – physicians, nurses, community health workers, and others – to deal with persons whose alcohol… This comprehensive report details the full extent of the way that alcohol is being marketed across alcohol cravings duration in recovery national borders – often by digital means –… Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health.
But heavy drinking carries a much higher risk even for those without other health concerns. Be sure to ask your healthcare professional about what’s right for your health and safety. That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. For example, any amount of drinking increases the risk of breast cancer and colorectal cancer.
- The report highlights the urgent need to accelerate actions globally towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.5 by 2030 by reducing alcohol and drug consumption and improving access to quality treatment for substance use disorders.
- Because denial is common, you may feel like you don’t have a problem with drinking.
- For example, it may be used to define the risk of illness or injury based on the number of drinks a person has in a week.
- The 2010 WHO Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and the 2022 WHO Global action plan are the most comprehensive international alcohol policy documents, endorsed by WHO Member States, that provides guidance on reducing the harmful use of alcohol at all levels.
- Total alcohol per capita consumption in the world population decreased slightly from 5.7 litres in 2010 to 5.5 litres in 2019.
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However, latest available data indicate that half of all alcohol-attributable cancers in the WHO European Region are caused by “light” and “moderate” alcohol consumption – less than 1.5 litres of wine or less than 3.5 litres of beer or less than 450 millilitres of spirits per week. This drinking pattern is responsible for the majority of alcohol-attributable breast cancers in women, with the highest burden observed in countries of the European Union (EU). In the EU, cancer is the leading cause of death – with a steadily increasing incidence rate – and the majority of all alcohol-attributable deaths are due to different types of cancers. Both the volume of lifetime alcohol use and a combination of context, frequency of alcohol consumption and amount consumed per occasion increase the risk of the wide range of health and social harms. The risks increase largely in a dose-dependent manner with the volume of alcohol consumed and with frequency of drinking, and exponentially with the amount consumed on a single occasion. Surrogate and illegally produced alcohols can bring an extra health risk from toxic contaminants.
Harmful use of alcohol is accountable for 6,9 % and 2.0% of the global burden of disease for males and females respectively. Alcohol is the leading risk factor for premature mortality and disability among those aged 20 to 39 years, accounting for 13% of all deaths in this age group. Disadvantaged and especially vulnerable populations have higher rates of alcohol-related death and hospitalization.
Related health topic
Notably, 2 million of alcohol and 0.4 million of drug-attributable deaths were among men. Most of the 145 countries that reported data did not have a specific budget line or data on governmental expenditures for treatment of substance use disorders. Although mutual help and peer support groups are useful resources for people with substance use disorders, almost half of responding countries reported that they do not offer such support groups for substance use disorders. Unhealthy alcohol use includes any alcohol use that puts your health or safety at risk or causes other alcohol-related problems. It also includes binge drinking — a pattern of drinking where a male has five or more drinks within two hours or a female has at least four drinks within two hours. Globally, the WHO European Region has the highest alcohol consumption level and the highest proportion of drinkers in the population.
The report shows an estimated 400 million people lived with alcohol use disorders globally. WHO works with Member States and partners to prevent and reduce the harmful use of alcohol as a public health priority. The 2010 WHO Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and the 2022 WHO Global action plan are the most comprehensive international alcohol policy documents, endorsed by WHO Member States, that provides guidance on reducing the harmful use of alcohol at all levels. “To build a healthier, more equitable society, we must urgently commit to bold actions that reduce the negative health and social consequences of alcohol consumption and make treatment for substance use disorders accessible and affordable.” The risk of developing cancer increases substantially the more alcohol is consumed.
In addition, enforcing drink driving countermeasures and securing access to screening, brief interventions, and treatment are effective and ethically sound interventions. The most cost-effective interventions are at the focus of WHO-led SAFER initiative aimed at providing support for Member States in reducing the harmful use of alcohol. This initiative includes policies that reduce the affordability, availability, and acceptability of alcohol, particularly in the heaviest-drinking countries, mitigating the effects of alcohol consumption on public health.
A critical aspect of the Region’s approach is addressing the commercial determinants of health, particularly the influence of the alcohol industry on public health policy. This emphasizes the importance of protecting policy-making processes from industry interference that aims to delay or weaken public health measures that would reduce alcohol consumption. To combat this, WHO advocates for transparency in policy development, the exclusion of the alcohol industry from policy discussions, and the implementation of regulations to limit the industry’s influence on public health. Alcohol use disorder is a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol or continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems.