Document Type : Review Article
Author
Addiction Research Centre, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
The harmful use of alcohol inflicts great deal of social and economic losses on individuals and societies. Given the increase in world population and the predicted increase in alcohol consumption, the alcohol related burden of disease progressively catches higher ranks in the list of factors threatening humans' life. It has been considered that the social and economic burden related to alcohol use may even increase further unless effective prevention policies and measures are implemented worldwide. According to the latest report on alcohol use and its inherent health consequences by World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 3.3 million deaths, or 5.9% of all global deaths, were attributable to alcohol consumption in 2012. The male: female ratio for deaths related to alcohol consumption was 1.9: 1 in 2012. Moreover, at the same time, 5.1% of the global burden of disease and injury, have been attributable to alcohol consumption. Among different WHO regions, the highest alcohol-attributable deaths and DALYs were reported in the European Region, while in the South-east Asian and Western Pacific Regions, an increasing trend in alcohol consumption is observable.
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