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Relation between average alcohol consumption and disease: an overview
1Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Objective:
To conduct an overview of alcohol-related health consequences and to estimate relative risk for chronic consequences and attributable fractions for acute consequences.
Methods:
Identification of alcohol-related consequences was performed by means of reviewing and evaluating large-scale epidemiological studies and reviews on alcohol and health, including epidemiological contributions to major social cost studies. Relative risks and alcohol-attributable fractions were drawn from the international literature and risk estimates were updated, whenever possible, by means of meta-analytical techniques.
Results:
More than 60 health consequences were identified for which a causal link between alcohol consumption and outcome can be assumed.
Conclusions:
Future research on alcohol-related health consequences should focus on standardization of exposure measures and take into consideration both average volume of consumption and patterns of drinking.