Social problems caused by alcohol consumption are linked to death, research says.
A study at University of Colorado Boulder attempted to determine the mortality rates associated with socio-psychological and physical effects of drinking, as per Colorado.
The study involved about 40,000 subjects. Results have shown that the social problems brought about by alcohol drinking are more associated to mortality rates as compared to the physical risks of drinking.
CU-Boulder's institute of Behavioral Science (BS) Sociology professor Richard Rogers said that the findings indicated that the subjects who received an intervention from a doctor or significant others had a 67 percent risk of death over the 18-year study while people who lessened their social and sport activities due to alcohol consumption have a 46 percent risk of mortality.
Rogers added that physically life-threatening behaviors caused by alcohol drinking, such as driving after drinking, did not have a significant increase in death rates. Also, physiological effects of alcohol use such as illness and withdrawal jitters were less associated to death as compared with its social effects like losing jobs and significant others.
One surprising finding from the study is that 48 percent of light drinkers, people who consume less than a drink per day, reported alcohol-related problems within a year before the survey.
Rogers also added that people who attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in the previous year are at 45 percent higher risk of death. However, he said that the risk of mortality for those people is due to smoking and other problems concerning substance abuse.
Meanwhile, a study conducted by the CU-Research team reviewed the drinking habits of about 40,000 people across the nation, along with 41 alcohol-related problems. They also identified information pertaining to the death of respondents between the time of the survey and 2006.
According to the study, drinking problems associated with mortality included excessive drinking, failure to alcohol withdrawal, driving after drinking, losing significant others, missing work, depression, and arrests.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that 3.3 million people die from harmful effects of alcohol in a year and 25 percent of the total global consumption is classified as unrecorded consumption.
Four areas for global action have been established by WHO, which includes public health advocacy and collaboration, technical support and capacity building, generation and transfer of knowledge, and mobilization of resources.