A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that alcohol consumption kills nearly three million people each year.
The report titled: “Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health and Treatment of Substance Use Disorders” highlights that alcohol is responsible for nearly one in 20 deaths each year due to drunk driving, alcohol-induced violence and abuse, and a range of diseases and disorders.
Although the death rate has slightly declined in recent years, the global health body said it remains “unacceptably high.”
The report said 2.6 million deaths were attributed to alcohol consumption in 2019 – the latest available statistics – accounting for 4.7 per cent of all deaths worldwide that year.
Nearly three-quarters of those deaths were in men, it said.
“Substance use severely harms individual health, increasing the risk of chronic diseases, mental health conditions, and tragically resulting in millions of preventable deaths every year,” WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus said.
He pointed that there had been “some reduction in alcohol consumption and related harm worldwide since 2010“.
“(But) the health and social burden due to alcohol use remains unacceptably high,” he continued, highlighting that younger people were disproportionately affected.
The report
The report indicated that alcohol consumption caused 2.6 million deaths in 2019, with Europe and Africa having the highest mortality rates, despite some decline.
It highlighted that the death rates due to alcohol consumption are highest in low-income countries and lowest in high-income countries.
According to the report, of all deaths attributable to alcohol in 2019, an estimated 1.6 million deaths were from noncommunicable diseases, including 474 000 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 401 000 from cancer.
It also noted that some 724,000 deaths from injuries, including crashes, interpersonal violence, and self-harm were recorded.
The report explained that 284,000 deaths were linked to communicable diseases, such as HIV and Tuberculosis, exacerbated by alcohol consumption, which it says weakens immune responses and increases risky behaviour.
It added that young adults aged 20 to 39 account for 13 per cent of alcohol-related deaths.
Decreased consumption rate
The report highlighted that global alcohol consumption decreased from 5.7 litres per capita in 2010 to 5.5 litres in 2019, with the highest consumption levels in the WHO European Region (9.2 litres) and the Region of the Americas (7.5 litres) in 2019.
It also noted that the level of alcohol consumption per capita among drinkers amounts on average to 27 grams of pure alcohol per day, roughly equivalent to two glasses of wine, two bottles of beer (33cl) or two servings of spirits (4cl).
“This level and frequency of drinking is associated with increased risks of numerous health conditions and associated mortality and disability.”
It said in 2019, 38 per cent of drinkers who engaged in heavy episodic drinking were mostly men.
It noted that despite effective treatments for substance use disorders, treatment coverage remains low (1-35 per cent in 2019) due to stigma, discrimination, and misconceptions.
Most of the 145 countries that reported data lack dedicated budgets and data for treatment, and nearly half don’t offer support groups, hindering efforts to address substance use disorders.
WHO, however, called for urgent action to reduce substance use and improve treatment access by 2030 adding that governments and partners must act in some strategic areas to reduce substance use.