Health
The amount a nation drinks directly impacts on the amount of alcohol-related deaths and diseases it suffers.
The harms caused by alcohol consumption are the third highest preventable public health problem facing the world according to the World Health Organisation.
In the UK it costs the NHS £2.7bn each year to tackle alcohol-related health harms. Most people will have experienced for themselves or know of someone that has encountered problems due to drinking too much, be that through alcohol dependence, ending up in A&E after a night out or by suffering from an alcohol-related illness.
The problems we face are stark:
- Nearly one million people admitted to hospital for alcohol-related problems
- Alcohol playing a part in 30-40,000 deaths per annum according to the Royal College of Physicians
- From 1970 to 2000 deaths from chronic liver disease increased in young men and women by over 900%.
The government has produced sensible drinking guidelines:
- Men should drink no more than 3-4 units per day
- Women should drink no more than 2-3 units per day
- You should take a break for 48-hours after a heavy drinking session to let you body recover.
Currently about one in three men and one in six women drink above recommended guidelines.
A unit of alcohol is 10 millilitres (or approx 8g) of ethanol- formula. Units are calculated by multiplying the volume of drink in millilitres by its strength expressed as ABV (alcohol by volume) and then dividing it by 1000. Typically a small glass of wine or half a pint of beer is about one unit (depending on the strength of the drink).
For more information about sensible drinking guidelines, including advice for pregnant women and young people see the concerned about alcohol section of our website.
The two main drivers of alcohol consumption are the price of alcohol and the availability of alcohol. Alcohol Concern believes that we must tackle these two issues if we want to effectively reduce the health harms associated with alcohol. In the section on price and taxation we set out both the evidence and policy proposals that could be used to tackle the problems caused by freely available cheap alcohol.
These measures should be accompanied by more and better alcohol treatment to help those that do develop a problem with alcohol as well as identification and brief advice to be rolled out to all healthcare settings to ensure that people developing a drinking disorder are supported.
Alcohol and health
There are more than 45 medical conditions which are wholly or partially attributable to alcohol.
The North West Public Health Observatory has looked at international evidence from across the world and has shown that there are 47 conditions which are attributable, in some form to alcohol consumption. Of these 13 conditions are wholly-attributable and 34 are partially-attributable.
From a public health perspective it is important that people are aware that drinking alcohol, even in relatively small volumes can have an impact on their health. Alcohol, obviously, is the cause of wholly-attributable conditions such as alcoholic liver disease but it also plays a part in, amongst others, the following conditions:
- Cancer of the lips, oesophagus and larynx
- Breast cancer
- Heart failure
- Heart failure
- Stroke
- Type II diabetes
As with alcohol-related deaths there has been a significant rise in alcohol-related mortality in the last 15-years. The below graph showing the rise of alcohol-related morbidity across the UK is taken from our 2009 report, 'Future proof: can we afford the cost of drinking too much?':
The increase in alcohol-related morbidity is a direct result of increased alcohol consumption. Alcohol Concern believes that action is needed to tackle alcohol consumption at a population wide level to start reducing the rise in alcohol-related diseases. This can most effectively be achieved by tackling the sale of cheap alcohol which has been shown to reduce consumption at a whole population level.
Read more about action on pricing and taxation.