The Societal Cost of Excessive Drinking in North Carolina, 2017

Abstract

BACKGROUND Excessive drinking, including binge and heavy drinking, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in North Carolina. In 2010, excessive drinking cost North Carolina $7.03 billion, and this analysis aimed to update this figure for 2017.METHODS Following the methods of Sacks, et al. (2015), we obtained proxies for the 2010 and 2017 incidence and price for 26 alcohol-attributable cost components. We then multiplied each component's 2010 cost by the incidence trend (2017 incidence/2010 incidence) and price trend (2017 price/2010 price) to estimate the 2017 cost. Finally, we summed these cost components to calculate the total cost and allocated them by payer and county.RESULTS Excessive drinking cost $9.72 billion in North Carolina in 2017, which equals approximately $2.09 per standard drink. Government paid $4.43 billion (45.6%), drinkers paid $3.76 billion (38.7%), and persons other than the drinker paid $1.53 billion (15.7%).LIMITATIONS These methods relied on alcohol-attributable fractions, which were calculated using scientific literature and national data. If consumption patterns differ between the United States and North Carolina, these fractions may not generalize. Scaling processes may over- or underestimate individual cost components, so total state costs should be interpreted as estimates.CONCLUSIONS The societal costs from excessive drinking are high but spread across public sectors. This can make it difficult to attribute this burden to alcohol. While drinkers paid less than half of the costs of excessive drinking, a broad range of stakeholders bore the burden. Evidence-based strategies to reduce excessive drinking may decrease these costs.