Alcohol Harms Not Just Drinkers but Also Other People, Says Study
A review published in the journal BMC Medicine attempted to rectify the age old belief that alcohol harms only the individual who consumes it and no one else. However, researchers at the Institute for Therapy Research in Bayern, Germany found that a lot of people had experienced some form of physical harm due to alcohol consumption by others either through alcohol consumption during pregnancy, as an outcome of interpersonal violence, or as in road accidents. The study authors concluded that the detrimental consequences of alcohol consumption on non-drinkers must be treated as a community health hazard and effective measures implemented to avert such avoidable harm.
Lead author Dr. Ludwig Kraus shared that the study carried out an estimation of the severe implications that alcohol may have had on third party individuals apart from the drinkers themselves. Some of these severe implications included fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), road traffic deaths caused by drunk driving, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), and fatalities caused due to alcohol-related interpersonal incidents of violence.
Drinking during pregnancy and road accidents inflicted maximum harm
The study revealed that alcohol could be attributed to 45.1 percent third party road accident fatalities and 14.9 percent deaths caused as an outcome of interpersonal violence. Further, alcohol was found to be responsible for more than 2,900 cases of FAS and approximately 12,650 incidents of FASD. According to the authors, FASD and FAS were among the many probable outcomes of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The authors were aware of the fact that it was tricky to figure out the extent of physical harm caused due to other people’s drinking. So, they decided to focus only on Germany and presenting a “proof of concept”, instead of taking a couple of countries into consideration.
The researchers stated that it was relatively easier to gather information pertaining to physical harm on non-drinkers as this data could be found from the database on traffic fatalities. Gathering data pertaining to interpersonal violence was challenging because police data did not always have information about alcohol-related domestic violence incidents, as such events were highly underreported. However, the study confirmed that out of the 135,000 violent incidents reported, 40,000 involved the use of alcohol. In these incidents, around 55 individuals lost their lives, out of which 29 were women. The figures indicated that alcohol consumption may cause detrimental effects on not just the drinker, but also to others around them who did not drink.
Dr. Kraus further said that while the evaluations of the three aforementioned domains could not be compared directly, the results of the study indicated that alcohol inflicted harm during pregnancy and road accident deaths accounted for the larger chunk of harm inflicted on third parties, as compared to violence related to alcohol.
It is challenging to assess alcohol use during pregnancy
The authors carried out an analysis of the data on the use of alcohol during pregnancy in order to assess the incidents of FASD and FAS. The statistics detailing the cause of deaths helped in providing the estimates pertaining to third party deaths caused due to traffic accidents and interpersonal deaths, as a result of alcohol consumption.
The authors however, shared a disclaimer that it was quite challenging to accurately assess the occurrence and level of alcohol usage during pregnancy, as most of the data available was self-reported and thus, may be subjected to bias or not remembering the incidents accurately.
According to Dr. Kraus, focused measures directed at addressing certain sections of population at risk, such as women who were of child bearing age or people who drove, may help in reducing third party harms in addition to harms to those people who drink. Other measures such as restricting the marketing of alcoholic drinks or introducing pricing policies were not quite popular among the general population.
Seeking help for alcoholism
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