The 'harmful use' of alcohol leads to about six deaths per minute, says new WHO report
A new report from the World Health Organization outlines some sobering statistics on the global toll of alcohol consumption.
24 September, 2018
Image: Pixabay Commons
- The report indicates that the 'harmful use' of alcohol leads to about six deaths per minute.
- Poorer countries tend to see higher rates of alcohol-related deaths and injuries.
- The WHO suggests deaths can be prevented through policies that restrict pricing, marketing, consumption and other factors.
<p><span></span>Alcohol is responsible for 5 percent of all deaths worldwide, according to a <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/274603/9789241565639-eng.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">new report</a> from the World Health Organization (WHO). The report, which used global data for 2016, includes some sobering statistics. The 'harmful use' of alcohol leads to about 3 million deaths annually — about six every minute — and the vast majority of those deaths, 2.3 million, are suffered by men. Among people ages 20 to 39, alcohol is responsible for about 13.5 percent of all deaths.</p><p>The report also indicates: </p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><span></span>There is a causal relationship between harmful use of alcohol and a range of mental and behavioral disorders, other noncommunicable conditions as well as injuries.</li><li><span></span>The harmful use of alcohol is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions.</li><li>The latest causal relationships have been established between harmful drinking and incidence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis as well as the course of HIV/AIDS.</li><li>Beyond health consequences, the harmful use of alcohol brings significant social and economic losses to individuals and society at large.</li><li>Globally, alcohol is linked to 7.7 percent of all deaths among men, but just 2.6 percent of all deaths among women.</li><li>Europe showed the highest levels of alcohol consumption, though Africa reported the highest levels of alcohol-related injuries and diseases.</li><li>Globally, an estimated 237 million men and 46 million women have
alcohol-use disorders, mostly in Europe (14.8 percent and 3.5 percent) and the Americas (11.5 percent and 5.1 percent).</li></ul>
Governments aren't implementing effective policies
<p>WHO alcohol-control expert, Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, told <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/21/5-of-all-deaths-due-to-alcohol-who-says" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></em> that the health burden of alcohol was "unacceptably large."</p><p>"Unfortunately, the implementation of the most effective policy options is lagging behind the magnitude of the problems," he said. "Governments need to do more to meet the global targets and to reduce the burden of alcohol on societies; this is clear, and this action is either absent or not sufficient in most of the countries of the world."</p><p><img src="https://assets.rbl.ms/18654218/980x.jpg">Although the levels of harm caused by alcohol largely depend on factors both individual (age, socioeconomic status, gender) and societal (culture, alcohol laws), the report suggests that governments can curb alcohol-related deaths and injuries by:<br></p><ul><li>regulating the marketing of alcoholic beverages (in particular to younger people)</li><li>regulating and restricting the availability of alcohol</li><li>enacting appropriate drink-driving policies</li><li>reducing demand through taxation and pricing mechanisms</li><li>raising awareness of public health problems caused by harmful use of alcohol and ensuring support for effective alcohol policies</li><li>providing accessible and affordable treatment for people with alcohol-use disorders, and</li><li>implementing screening and brief interventions programmes for hazardous and harmful drinking in health services.</li></ul><p>"Now the task we share is to help countries put in place policies that make a real and measurable difference in people's lives," wrote Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO. "We have no time to waste; it is time to deliver on alcohol control."</p><p><img src="https://assets.rbl.ms/18654228/980x.jpg">The WHO report comes in the wake of a recent study, <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31310-2/fulltext" target="_blank">published by</a><em><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31310-2/fulltext" target="_blank"> The Lancet</a>, </em>in August, that made headlines primarily for suggesting that the "safest level of drinking is none."<span></span></p><p>"Alcohol poses dire ramifications for future population health in the absence of policy action today. Our results indicate that alcohol use and its harmful effects on health could become a growing challenge as countries become more developed, and enacting or maintaining strong alcohol control policies will be vital," Emmanuela Gakidou, the report's senior author, told <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/23/no-healthy-level-of-alcohol-consumption-says-major-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</em></p>
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The Most Debilitating Disease in the World Isn't Just in Your Head
For the first time, the World Health Organization has declared a new mental illness to be the leading cause of disability around the world.
12 April, 2017
Depression. Photo Diego Fornero [flickr.com/destino2003]
<p dir="ltr">The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a new condition as the leading cause of of poor health and disability around the world, which has seen an 18% spike in diagnoses over the past few years. A condition that most of us have encountered in our lives either through personal experience or the difficulties of a friend or loved one. <strong>And, in a new twist, this condition is a mental disorder.</strong></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>Major Depressive Disorder, more commonly known as <strong>d</strong></span><strong>epression</strong><span> </span><a href="http://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2017/en/" target="_blank"><span>now affects more than 300 million people across the globe</span></a><span>, causing a lack of self-esteem, the inability to enjoy activities that previously brought pleasure, low energy, pain, and in severe cases delusion and hallucination. </span><strong>Between 2-7% of individuals with depression will go on to commit suicide.</strong></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><span style="white-space: pre;"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODMzOTE2Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzYyOTYxNX0.j01YyVsUDNbuzycsdbLEwoUfxtBbbgstdRh0oWvZhHY/img.jpg?width=980" id="ec0e4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0c113247c99c1a8be3215f57fff53b09" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"> <br></span></span><em style="color: #737d83; font-size: 13px;">Infographic by <a href="http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/" target="_blank">Mental Health America</a>.</em></p> <p dir="ltr"><br>While one might suppose this condition would be equal opportunity, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4100461/" target="_blank">rates of occurrence are higher in developed nations than in the developing world</a>, whether or not this is a situation of higher rates of detection or the actual existence of many more cases overall is currently unknown. It has been shown that cases are more common in urban areas, which is a<a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2086024/chinas-fast-paced-lifestyle-exacts-toll-residents"> problem that countries like China</a>, with rapidly urbanizing demographics, are trying to address.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span>WHO estimates that a trillion dollars in economic activity is lost every year to depression, an easily understood measure of its evils. Much more difficult to express is how horrible the condition truly is. The self-fueling despair, the utter hopelessness, the isolation it can produce, the inability to find any reason to carry on, or any reason to have been.</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>Unlike the previous record holders for leading causes of disability, depression is much simpler to hide than say, the inability to walk. </span><span><a href="https://bigthink.rebelmouse.com/philip-perry/is-our-celebrity-obsession-helping-to-de-stigmatize-mental-illness" target="_blank">Stigmas associated with mental disorders also make it more desirable to hide for many people</a>, m</span><span>aking the problems of detection and treatment that much harder.</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODMzOTE2My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjAyMzIzMn0.g5kgzHwtyAvoUCreSbiKH53HsmYZXFv8w7vs98edtBo/img.jpg?width=980" id="9b690" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b33aaec42ee5bbfd1a7be5e8412719b9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <div class="image-caption">Infographic by <em><a href="http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/" target="_blank">Mental Health America</a></em>.</div> <p dir="ltr"><strong>What can be done about this?</strong></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>WHO doesn’t leave us without a </span><a href="http://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2017/campaign-essentials/en/" target="_blank"><span>suggestion or two</span></a><span>. It points out that the typical government health budget around the world gives only a paltry 3% to mental health care, with higher rates in developed countries, perhaps shedding some light on the higher perceived rates of occurrence. WHO has called for various initiatives, campaigns, and actions by states, NGOs, and community groups to </span><span><a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/89966/1/9789241506021_eng.pdf" target="_blank">help fight depression.</a></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>They also point out that for every dollar spent in treatment and prevention of clinical depression, <strong>four dollars of economic activity is gained back; </strong></span>making it an extremely effective investment for any society.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span>Depression is now the most common disabling disease in the world, driving hundreds of thousands into despair every day. Its newfound prominence among the conditions that plague us most should concern us greatly, but it may also offer a silver lining: the stigmas associated with mental illness might be easier to end if the prominence and gravity of the disease are made clearer to all.</span></p> <div> </div><p class="flex-video"><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ef8d377816eb4e8e276f48dba4637a79"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X-fAEMgQnt8?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span></p>
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