Jakie są skutki finansowe i zdrowotne picia alkoholu? Przegląd literatury

Introduction: According to the available data, alcohol consumption leads to 3.8% deaths globally. So far there have been limited attempts to estimate the costs caused by alcohol in Poland. Objective: 1. To estimate the impact of alcohol on mortality and its social and economic consequences. 2. To provide an insight into what kind of methodological approach could be useful for future experts interested in the calculation of alcohol burden in Poland. Methods: A literature review was conducted to search in PubMed and grey literature for alcohol “cost of illness” (CoI) studies published between 2004 and 2014. Following key words were used: “costs of alcohol” and “burden of alcohol”. Only publications that focused on the association between alcohol and health or economic outcomes were included. Studies with a small number of patients and limited in scope research were excluded. Results: The inclusion criteria were met by ten publications of which four focused on the association between alcohol and mortality, three that studied alcohol economic consequences and three covering both topics. In respective countries, the number of deaths associated with alcohol ranged from 2.7% to 8.7% and the total costs ranged from 0.13% to 10% of GDP. Indirect costs constituted the biggest share with up to 80% of total burden. Discussion and conclusions: Alcohol consumption leads to the number of clinical and economic consequences. The available CoI studies provide valuable insight into which data source and methods are applicable to the calculation of alcohol impact on both mortality and costs