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According to Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and the senior author of the study, the health risk associated with alcohol intake are massive. There are clear and convincing correlations between drinking and premature death, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.
Researchers used data on all alcohol-related deaths generally and related health outcomes to determine their conclusions. Alcohol intake vary widely by country and by sex, the average consumption per drinker, and the attributable disease burden. Globally, more than 2 billion people were current drinkers in 2016; 63% were male.
Average consumption” refers to a standard drink, defined in the study as 10 grams of pure alcohol, consumed by a person daily, about the equivalent of: A small glass of red wine (100 ml or 3.4 fluid ounces) at 13% alcohol by volume; A can or bottle of beer (375 ml or 12 fluid ounces) at 3.5% alcohol by volume; or A shot of whiskey or other spirits (30 ml or 1.0 fluid ounces) at 40% alcohol by volume.
The study provides findings on prevalence of current drinking, prevalence of abstention, alcohol consumption among current drinkers, and deaths and overall poor health attributable to alcohol for 23 health outcomes, such as communicable and non-communicable diseases and injuries, including: Cardiovascular diseases: atrial fibrillation and flutter, hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, hypertensive heart disease, ischemic heart disease, and alcoholic cardiomyopathy; Cancers: breast, colorectal, liver, esophageal, larynx, lip and oral cavity, and nasal; Other non-communicable diseases: cirrhosis of the liver due to alcohol use, diabetes, epilepsy, pancreatitis, and alcohol use disorders.
Communicable diseases: lower respiratory infections and tuberculosis; Intentional injuries: interpersonal violence and self-harm; Unintentional injuries: exposure to mechanical forces; poisonings; fire, heat, and hot substances; drowning; and other unintentional injuries. Researchers used 694 data sources on individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use.
In 2016, eight of the leading 10 countries with lowest death rates attributable to alcohol use among 15- to 49-year-olds were in the Middle East: Kuwait, Iran, Palestine, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, and Syria. The other two were Maldives and Singapore. Conversely, seven of the leading 10 countries with highest death rates were in the Baltic, Eastern European, or Central Asian regions, specifically Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Mongolia, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. The other three were Lesotho, Burundi, and Central African Republic.