Question

Alcohol use not only affects those who consume but also those around them. In the
light of this, discuss how it is connected to social problems?

Answer 1

Answer:

Alcohol consumption, particularly heavier drinking, is an important risk factor for many health problems and, thus, is a major contributor to the global burden of disease. In fact, alcohol is a necessary underlying cause for more than 30 conditions and a contributing factor to many more. The most common disease categories that are entirely or partly caused by alcohol consumption include infectious diseases, cancer, diabetes, neuropsychiatric diseases (including alcohol use disorders), cardiovascular disease, liver and pancreas disease, and unintentional and intentional injury. Knowledge of these disease risks has helped in the development of low-risk drinking guidelines. In addition to these disease risks that affect the drinker, alcohol consumption also can affect the health of others and cause social harm both to the drinker and to others, adding to the overall cost associated with alcohol consumption. These findings underscore the need to develop effective prevention efforts to reduce the pain and suffering, and the associated costs, resulting from excessive alcohol use.

Keywords: alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, alcohol use disorders, alcoholism,

heavy drinking, AOD induced risk, AOD effects and consequences, health, disease cause, disease factor, disease risk and protective factors, burden of disease, health care costs, injury, social harm, drinking guidelines, prevention

Alcohol consumption has been identified as an important risk factor for illness, disability, and mortality (Rehm et al. 2009b). In fact, in the last comparative risk assessment conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), the detrimental impact of alcohol consumption on the global burden of disease and injury was surpassed only by unsafe sex and childhood underweight status but exceeded that of many classic risk factors, such as unsafe water and sanitation, hyper-tension, high cholesterol, or tobacco use (WHO 2009). This risk assessment evaluated the net effect of all alcohol consumption—that is, it also took into account the beneficial effects that alcohol consumption (primarily moderate consumption) can have on ischemic diseases1 and diabetes (Baliunas et al.