Alcohol consumption guidelines should be based on age and location

Global alcohol consumption recommendations should be based on age and location, according to new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease study.

The analysis, published in the Lancet, found that adults aged 40 and older without underlying health conditions may see some benefits from small alcohol consumption, including a reduced risk in cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.

It also suggested that for young adults aged 15-39, there are no health benefits to drinking alcohol, only health risks, with 59.1% of people who consumed unsafe amounts of alcohol in 2020 being in this age group.

This is the first study to report alcohol risk by geographical region, age, sex, and year. Using estimates of alcohol use in 204 countries, researchers calculated that 1.34 billion people consumed harmful amounts in 2020.

In every region, the largest segment of the population drinking unsafe amounts of alcohol were males aged 15-39, with 60% of alcohol-related injuries occurring among people in this age group, including motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and homicides.

Senior author Dr Emmanuela Gakidou, Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, said: €œOur message is simple: young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts. While it may not be realistic to think young adults will abstain from drinking, we do think it’s important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health.”

Small amount of alcohol may provide some benefit in people over 40 years

For individuals aged 40-64 years in 2020, safe alcohol consumption levels ranged from about half a standard drink per day (0.527 drinks for males and 0.562 standard drinks per day for females) to almost two standard drinks (1.69 standard drinks per day for males and 1.82 for females).

For individuals over 65 years in 2020, the risks of health loss from alcohol consumption were reached after consuming a little more than three standard drinks per day (3.19 drinks for males and 3.51 for females). The estimates suggest that small amounts of alcohol consumption in populations over 40 without underlying conditions may be associated with improved health outcomes, particularly in populations that predominantly face a higher burden of cardiovascular diseases.

The distribution of disease burden for a given age group varied substantially across regions, resulting in variations in risks from alcohol consumption, particularly in individuals aged 40 years and older.

Overall, the recommended alcohol intake for adults remained low at between 0 €“ 1.87 standard drinks per day, regardless of geography, age, sex, or year.

Lead author Dana Bryazka, researcher at IHME, added: “Even if a conservative approach is taken and the lowest level of safe consumption is used to set policy recommendations, this implies that the recommended level of alcohol consumption is still too high for younger populations.

“Our estimates, based on currently available evidence, support guidelines that differ by age and region. Understanding the variation in the level of alcohol consumption that minimises the risk of health loss for populations can aid in setting effective consumption guidelines, supporting alcohol control policies, monitoring progress in reducing harmful alcohol use, and designing public health risk messaging.”