Alcoholism is a condition resulting from uncontrolled use of alcohol and a preoccupation with consumption of alcohol. There are over 10 million cases of alcoholism reported every year. Around the world, the consumption of alcohol seems to be on the rise and if one study is to be believed, then it is only set to rise further in the coming years. The study indicated that binge-drinking of alcohol around the world has been on a steady uptick since 1990s and will increase further till 2030 when an average person is estimated to consume 7.6 litres of alcohol. The study comes against the backdrop of World Health Organisation (WHO) and several participating countries setting a target to reduce harmful use of alcohol by 10 per cent, by the year 2025.
The study titled, "Global alcohol exposure between 1990 and 2017 and forecasts until 2030: a modelling study" was published in the journal Lancet. The study looked at the adult alcohol per capita consumption or the consumption of pure alcohol per adult of age 15 years and above, in any given year in a country, up until the year 2016. Based on this data, they were able to forecast the per capita alcohol consumption in each country by the year 2030 and concluded that the participating countries will not be able to achieve the set targets by 2050. The survey data was collected from 149 countries and it was observed that the global per capita alcohol consumption increased from 5.9 litres to 6.5 litres between 1990 and 2017.
Another finding said that around the world, lifetime abstinence decreased from 46 per cent in 1990 to 43 per cent in 2017, although this was not considered a significant reduction. Similarly, the prevalence of current drinking went up from 45 per cent in 1990 to 47 per cent in 2017. The researchers forecasted that both these trends will continue and that abstinence will further decrease to become 40 per cent by 2030 and current drinking prevalence will increase by 50 per cent by the same year. Another key finding said that in 2017, 20 per cent of alcohol users were heavy episodic users and this percentage will see an uptick of another 3 per cent by 2030.
The researchers concluded by saying, "Based on these data, global goals for reducing the harmful use of alcohol are unlikely to be achieved, and known effective and cost-effective policy measures should be implemented to reduce alcohol exposure."
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