The release of the World Status report on Alcohol 2018 found more evidence than ever
before that alcohol consumption has serious harmful impact. Yet there has also been a
marked increase (16%) in liquor consumption during the period of 2005 to 2015.
Within the age group of persons aged 15 and above, the worldwide per capita ingestion rate increased from 5.5 litres of pure alcohol in 2005 to 6.4 litres in 2016. It is projected that these rates will rise again during the period from 2016-2025. The average world
consumption level is considered to be about 7 litres per capita. (Note: pure alcohol
measures the alcohol content from consumable beverages such as beer and wine.)
Further information from this report will demonstrate the harmful effects of alcohol in
greater detail.
Published in August 2018, medical journal The Lancet released a study detailing alcohol
impact on illnesses and death, which concludes there is no safe level of alcoholic intake to
mitigate health risk.
The correlational study spanned 195 locations from 1990 to 2016, using 694 data sources of individual and population-level consumption, and 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use. Determining that the standard daily consumption level for the subject group would be 10 g of pure ethyl alcohol, researchers examined alcohol-attributed deaths and disability-adjusted deaths (DALYs). The researchers released improved estimates of alcohol use attributable deaths as well as DALYs, across a subject group aged 15 and
older.
The study found alcohol use was the seventh leading cause of death and disability globally
in 2016. Among those aged 15-49 years, alcohol use was the leading global factor for riskattributable disease burden, although the degree to which this applied varied by sex, age
and the standard deviation index. Of note, the study does contemplate the protective
effects of alcohol use on conditions like ischemic heart disease and diabetes in females;
however, the study concludes these protective effects were offset by the risks associated
with cancers, which increased with higher alcohol intake.