April 12, 2021. - A study undertaken by PAHO/WHO and published on April 12 in the journal Addiction found that alcohol consumption was solely responsible for an average of 85,000 deaths annually during the 2013-2015 period in the Americas, where per capita consumption is 25% higher than the global average. The study, which analyzed mortality data in 30 countries of the Americas, revealed several other key findings.
The majority of deaths (64.9%) occurred in people aged less than 60 years and were mainly due to liver disease (63.9%) and neuropsychiatric disorders (27.4%), such as alcohol dependence. Alcohol consumption is, however, responsible for more than 300,000 (5.5%) deaths annually in the Region when alcohol was also a contributing causal factor. More men than women died from drinking, and men accounted for 83.1% of deaths solely attributable to alcohol consumption. The greatest gender disparities were in El Salvador and Belize, while this gap was smallest in the U.S. and Canada. About 80% of the deaths in which alcohol was a “necessary cause” occurred in three of the most populated countries. The United States, Brazil and Mexico, respectively, accounted for 36.9%, 24.8% and 18.4% of those deaths. The highest rates of alcohol-attributable mortality were observed in Nicaragua (23.2 per 100,000 people) and Guatemala (19 per 100,000), even though these countries have relatively lower per capita alcohol consumption.
Furthermore, the findings indicate that high income countries have higher per capita alcohol consumption while low and middle income countries have a higher rate of alcohol-attributable mortality for the same level of drinking. Consequently, PAHO urges countries in the Americas to implement alcohol policies such as limiting hours of alcohol sales, banning alcohol advertising, and taxing alcohol.
To access the article, click here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.15475