The impact of alcohol consumption on global health is worse than expected. According to the latest report published by the World Health Organization, one in every 20 deaths across the world are caused by alcohol consumption and related diseases. As per the data collected in 2016, 3 Million people died from issues that are related to alcohol consumption and its after-effects. Going deep into the statistics, it can be learnt that around 75% of the 3 million are men, also referring to the trends of alcohol consumption based on gender, across the globe. It should be noted that 3 Million is the number referring to the aftermath causes of alcohol consumption as well.
Far too many people, their families and communities suffer the consequences of the harmful use of alcohol through violence, injuries, mental health problems and diseases like cancer and stroke. It’s time to step up action to prevent this serious threat to the development of healthy societies,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. While several initiatives were launched in order to fight the issues of alcohol consumption, most of them were not effective per se. WHO also adds that the issue is worse when it comes to European and American regions.
To quote the official release: “Globally an estimated 237 million men and 46 million women suffer from alcohol-use disorders with the highest prevalence among men and women in the European region (14.8% and 3.5%) and the Region of Americas (11.5% and 5.1%).” Talking about the average consumption, WHO says that an average person is consuming 33 grams of pure alcohol, via wines and other drinks. Going further, it can be found that countries with high income have more chances of alcohol consumption and related issues. Making things worse, WHO believes that the number of deaths due to alcohol consumption will rise in the coming decade.
