The impact of alcohol consumption on African people in 2012: an analysis of burden of disease

Carina Ferreira-Borges; Jürgen Rehm; Sónia Dias; Thomas Babor; Charles D H Parry

doi:10.1111/tmi.12618

The impact of alcohol consumption on African people in 2012: an analysis of burden of disease

Trop Med Int Health. 2016 Jan;21(1):52-60. doi: 10.1111/tmi.12618. Epub 2015 Nov 5.

Authors

Carina Ferreira-Borges¹, Jürgen Rehm^{2

3

4}, Sónia Dias¹, Thomas Babor⁵, Charles D H Parry^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical & GHTM, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
² Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
³ University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁴ Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
⁵ Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, MO, USA.
⁶ Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Tygerberg, South Africa.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa.

PMID: 26448195
DOI: 10.1111/tmi.12618

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the impact of alcohol consumption on deaths and disability in Africa.

Methods: We estimated alcohol exposure for 2012, and its impact on deaths and disability in Africa using estimates from the WHO Global Health Estimates for outcome data, and the WHO Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2014 for risk relations. We provide a scenario that includes the impact of alcohol on HIV/AIDS incidence, and qualitative predictions on future exposure and harm.

Results: Overall, alcohol consumption has a large impact on burden of disease and mortality in African countries. Alcohol-attributable disease burden is more important when the impact of alcohol consumption on the incidence and course of HIV/AIDS is taken into account, with alcohol being responsible, in 2012, for 6.4% of all deaths and 4.7% of all DALYs lost in the African region. Alcohol exposure is expected to increase in the next years, and thus alcohol-attributable fractions.

Conclusions: The weight of new evidence, especially of alcohol's role in the incidence and course of HIV/AIDS, is particularly relevant to African countries and points to the need for a strong policy response to reduce the alcohol-related burden of disease on the continent.

Keywords: Africa; Afrique; Alcohol; alcohol; alcohol consumption; alcool; burden of disease; carga de enfermedad; charge de morbidité; consommation d'alcool; consumo de alcohol; morbidity; morbidité; morbilidad; mortalidad; mortality; mortalité; África.