Alcohol and Global Health

In 2019, alcohol use was the leading risk factor for attributable burden of disease among people ages 25 to 49, the second-leading risk factor among ages 10 to 24, and the ninth-leading risk factor among all ages. This series examines the underappreciated and growing impact of alcohol on global health.

Governance
Bar Manager Nicolas de Soto mixes a Calvados-based cocktail at ECC in Chinatown, London December 3, 2010.

Alcohol: A Public Health Blind Spot

by Ted Alcorn

Richard Yoast on alcohol consumption and how philanthropies could help curb excess drinking   

Food
A woman pours alcohol from the bottle into her mouth at the Far Hills Race Day at Moorland Farms in Far Hills, New Jersey, on October 17, 2015.

Alcohol in Excess

by Ted Alcorn

How the World Health Organization plans to curb excess drinking across countries

Aging
Kimono-clad women wearing protective face masks walk in front of white Japanese Sake barrels stacked in a grid decorated with colorful designs for the year-end and New-Year at Meiji Shrine

The Curious Case of Japan's Alcohol Contest

by Annie Chan

Japan's young people are turning away from alcohol, but its tax agency wants to reverse the trend

Gender
Two men are photographed from the waist up drinking beers out of the bottles at a a casual bar in the Manila metro area, in the Philippines

For Young Men, Alcohol Does Not Have to Be a Death Sentence

by Max Griswold, Dana Bryazka, Katherine Leach-Kemon, Erin Mullany, Emmanuela Gakidou

For males ages 15 to 49, drinking alcohol causes nearly 10 percent of all years lost to death and disability

Food
A life-size cutot of Professor Aurejus Veryga is used to block the path to buying alcohol in a supermarket during hours when alcohol sales are prohibited, in Lithuania, on January 7, 2019..​

Reducing Alcohol-Related Deaths in Lithuania

by Ted Alcorn

How the country is cutting down on deaths related to excess drinking