The new study found that alcohol was the fifth leading risk factor for death and disability in 2010, accounting for 5.5% of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost globally, up from 3.5% in 1990. 67 risk factors have been studied and results are presented for 21 regions all over the world.
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study attempts to calculate which factors cause early deaths and reduced health globally. Such calculations have earlier been presented in 1990 and in 2005. Parallel to the work with the 2010 study the researchers have made a complete re-assessment of the burden of diseases and injuries also in 1990. Consequently, for the first time changes in burden of disease attributable to different risk factors can be analysed over time with comparable methods and figures.
The new material which was launched in London on the 14th of December 2012 and published in a special issue of the journal The Lancet, is based on figures from 2010. After the launch in December 2012 it was discovered that there were some miscalculations in the material. One of these was related to the disease burden caused by alcohol consumption. Figures therefore had to be re-calculated and conclusion re-assessed. Following from this alcohol is now rankes as risk factor number five (and not three as concluded in the first place). This article in ADD Resources is built on the new and corrected figures, and the same is the all material which can be found at the Lancet web site. > > > > Read More
