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Report: Global deaths attributable to alcohol fell significantly since 2010

The analysis also confirmed that age-standardised alcohol-attributable disability adjusted life years (DALYs) declined by around 23% over the same period. One DALY is equivalent to a healthy year of life ‘lost’ due to disability or illness.

Exposure to high alcohol use has also dropped by about 10% over that period, with IARD concluding that there has been a significant reduction in alcohol-related harm since the 2010 baseline adopted by the UN.

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That year, its member states adopted the Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol, setting the goal of reducing harmful consumption of alcohol by 20% by 2030 – a goal towards which significant progress has been made.

Julian Braithwaite, the president and CEO of IARD, explained: “These findings are encouraging and show that meaningful reductions in alcohol-related harm are achievable.

“But global averages mask significant differences between countries and regions, and continued progress cannot be taken for granted.

“Looking across mortality, disability and exposure together provides a stronger evidence base to help governments, healthcare providers and communities make more informed decisions, strengthen ongoing efforts and focus resources where they are most needed.”

IARD’s report did not find any one factor to be the direct cause of the overall decline.

Instead, it attributed reductions in alcohol-related harm to a multitude of causes including shifting alcohol use patterns, overall improvements to healthcare and wider social and economic improvements.

Many organisations that do health-related work around alcohol continue to argue for higher levels of taxation on alcohol, something that the trade has – to varying degrees – resisted.

The WHO, for example, has regularly advocated for raising taxes on alcohol to cut consumption, and reduce alcohol harms.

IARD is more on the fence, previously stating that ‘taxation should be proportionate, appropriate for each local context, and consistent with World Trade Organization principles. [It] should neither create market distortions nor exacerbate issues of harmful consumption’.

The organisation’s analysis drew on data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s (IMHE) most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, which has not yet been publicly released.

IARD said that these estimates are not directly comparable to WHO monitoring data, due to differing methodologies, instead offering a complementary insight into alcohol’s impact on global health.

• UN
• public health
• IARD
• WHO
• alcohol harm
• taxation
• Alcohol Deaths
• GBD