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Chronic Diseases and Conditions Related to Alcohol Use

Alcohol has been a part of human culture for all of recorded history, with almost all societies in which alcohol is consumed experiencing net health and social problems (McGovern 2009; Tramacere et al. 2012b, c). With the industrialization of alcohol production and the globalization of its marketing and promotion, alcohol consumption and its related harms have increased worldwide (see Alcohol...

Alcohol and Mortality: Global Alcohol-Attributable Deaths From Cancer, Liver Cirrhosis, and Injury in 2010

Alcohol and Mortality

Alcohol is causally linked to more than 200 different diseases, conditions, and injuries (as specified in the International Classification of Diseases, Revision 10 [ICD-10] three-digit codes [see Rehm 2011; Rehm et al. 2009; Shield et al., 2013c [pp. 155–173 of this issue]). All of these disease, condition, and injury categories cause mortality and disability, and, thus...

APIS: The NIAAA Alcohol Policy Information System

The Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) is an NIAAA-sponsored Web site that provides detailed information on alcohol-related public policies at both the State and Federal levels. Updated annually, the APIS information can be used to identify policy changes in 33 policy areas. Up to two-thirds of these policies can be tracked back to 1998, and data on the remaining one-third are available...

The Burden of Alcohol Use: Focus on Children and Preadolescents

The burden of alcohol use usually is expressed as a function of the contribution of alcohol use in a population to morbidity and mortality in that population (Rehm et al. 2010). It is difficult to calculate the burden of alcohol use for middle-school and high-school adolescents (see Patrick and Schulembery, p. 193 in this issue) and nearly impossible to do so for children and preadolescents. There...

Prevalence and Predictors of Adolescent Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking in the United States

In the United States, alcohol use typically begins and escalates during adolescence and young adulthood. To describe the historical and developmental trends in substance use in this age group, the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study (Johnston et al. 2012) was designed in 1975. Since then, this ongoing national-cohort sequential longitudinal study assessing the epidemiology and etiology of substance...

The Burden of Alcohol Use: Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Related Consequences Among College Students

Since 1976, when the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) issued its first report on alcohol misuse by college students, research advances have transformed our understanding of excessive drinking on college campuses and the negative outcomes that follow from it. For instance, we now know that a broad array of factors influence whether a particular college student will choose...

Focus On: Women and the Costs of Alcohol Use

Even though the prevalence of alcohol use in the United States generally is lower among women compared with men (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA] 2011), this gap has narrowed (Grucza et al. 2008). Furthermore, although women consume alcohol at lower levels than men, their body composition puts them at higher risk than men of developing some alcohol-related...

Focus On: Ethnicity and the Social and Health Harms From Drinking

Research has shown differential social and health effects from alcohol use across U.S. ethnic groups, including Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans. The relationship of ethnicity to alcohol-related social and health harms partially is attributed to the different rates and patterns of drinking across ethnicities. Some ethnic groups have higher rates of alcohol consumption...

Gaps in Clinical Prevention and Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders: Costs, Consequences, and Strategies

Heavy drinking takes a high toll on society. Other articles in this issue summarize the disease burden and economic cost to society attributable to alcohol use, which provide a powerful incentive to develop and implement ways to reduce them. The focus of this article is on the role of selective (i.e., clinical) prevention and treatment approaches for heavy drinkers and people with alcohol use...

The World Health Organization’s Global Monitoring System on Alcohol and Health

With growing awareness of the impact of alcohol consumption on global health (Rehm et al. 2004; World Health Organization [WHO] 2002, 2009) the demand for global information on alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable and alcohol-related harm as well as related policy responses has increased significantly. Public health problems attributable to harmful alcohol consumption have become the focus...