Rise in alcohol consumption

The Report

• According to WHO(World Health Organisation), alcohol consumption has increased from 2.1 liters in 2005 to 5.7 liters in 2016. Around 4.2 liters were consumed by men and 1.5 liters by women per-capita. 

• The highest increase in alcohol consumption is expected in the South-East region. However, Indonesia and Thailand has seen quite low increase despite being second and and fourth largest population, respectively.

• Alcohol is a leading risk factor for several diseases and has a direct impact on maternal and child health as well as infectious diseases such as HIV, Tuberculosis, non-communicable diseases, mental health, injuries and poising.

The loses

• In 2016, the use of alcohol resulted in some 3 million deaths which accounts for 5.3% of total deaths worldwide and around 132.6 million disability-adjusted life years(DALYs). Deaths resulting from alcohol consumption are higher than that of caused by most feared diseases such as Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Diabetes.

• Among men  in 2016, 2.3 million died and have at most 106.5 million DALYs while on contrast women have much lower deaths i.e 0.7 million and 26.1 million DALYs. The harmful use of alcohol is a casual factor for more than 200 diseases and injury conditions.

Juvenile consumption

• In the WHO Global Survey on alcohol and health showed that in the five tear of term the young drinkers aged 15-25 are having more alcohol consumption than any other age group. By collecting alcohol consumption statistics from 82 responding countries, 80% showed increase in usage of alcohol, 11% decrease and 6% stable.

• For juvenile from 15 to 19 years of age, more than a quarter i.e 26.5% are current drinkers which accounts for 155 million adolescents. These adults have a very harmful and hazardous drinking pattern such drinking intoxication and binge drinking. Various types of surveys were taken for students who drinks using different means. Schools are the best medium through which we can easily find out the proportion. Two such surveys were taken in Europe namely The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) and on the other hand The Health Behavior in School Children Study (HBSC).

Alcohol, a cause

• Different types of diseases and injuries caused by alcohol consumption depends upon two separate but related factors i.e:
• Volume of alcohol consumed and,
• The pattern of drinking.

• Apart from some 200 small and less infectious diseases, there are more than 30 International Classification of Diseases (ICD) which states alcohol as one of the causes. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the disorders seen due to harmful and overuse of alcohol on daily bases, even if it effects one's health condition. It is sometimes also known as "alcoholism".

• The above two factors further results into three mechanism through consuming alcohol i.e:
1. toxic and other effects due to alcohol on organs and tissues,
2. intoxication and,
3. dependence.

• The alcohol consuming pattern also depends upon its production, in other words how much toxicity the brands are using to make such liquors.Following are some of the major diseases and injuries caused by the alcohol:
• Neuropsychiatric disorders
• Gastrointestinal diseases
• Cancer
• Intentional injury
• Non-intentional injury
• Diabetes etc..

A leading risk factor

• Alcohol ranks for eighth among the risk factors for the cause of death. Also, alcohol consumption is third most leading casual factor for diseases and disability after childhood overweight and unsafe sex. Unsafe use of alcohol also increase the number of years wasted due to disability or disease, in other words Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY).

• Apart from chronic diseases and injuries caused by alcohol, there are several other psychological effects such as:
• abuse
• violence
• child neglect
• being irresponsible
• late at workplace etc...

•  Moreover, despite being a casual factors for various communicable and non-communicable diseases it is not given proper attention which makes it even more severe and deadly cause for the symptoms.according to the WHO, the low and middle income countries such as the Americas and the Western Pacific are highly affected by the over consuming of the alcohol.

Economy and the Alcohol

• Death, disease and injuries are proportional to the economic condition of the State. Lower the economy, higher is the active risk factors. Most socioeconomic issues rise up due to maximum consumption of the alcohol, irrespective of the age group.

• The affected areas are the higher alcohol attributable mortality and burden of diseases which eventually results into the higher disability-adjustable life years. These higher DALYs affeccts the overall GDP of the country due to various reasons such as:
• late or being absent at workplace
• more expenditure on the alcoholic products
• uneven beverages for daily diet
• medicines and other hospital expenses for cure caused due to alcohol consumption

• The relation between the alcohol and the economy is quite complex for low or middle income level countries - US $20,000 - the higher the economical development the higher is the alcohol consumption. and lower is the abstainers.

• On contrast, for other region or State, the higher is the economic development, the higher is the alcohol attributable mortality and higher is the disease burden.