What are the Economic Costs to Society Attributable to Alcohol Use? A Systematic Review and Modelling Study

Jakob Manthey (), Syed Ahmed Hassan, Sinclair Carr, Carolin Kilian, Sören Kuitunen-Paul and Jürgen Rehm
Additional contact information
Jakob Manthey: Technische Universität Dresden
Syed Ahmed Hassan: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Sinclair Carr: University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)
Carolin Kilian: Technische Universität Dresden
Sören Kuitunen-Paul: Technische Universität Dresden
Jürgen Rehm: Technische Universität Dresden

PharmacoEconomics, 2021, vol. 39, issue 7, No 5, 809-822

Abstract: Abstract Background Alcohol-attributable costs to society are captured by cost-of-illness studies, however estimates are often not comparable, e.g. due to the omission of relevant cost components. In this contribution we (1) summarize the societal costs attributable to alcohol use, and (2) estimate the total costs under the assumption that all cost components are considered. Methods A systematic review and meta-analyses were conducted for studies reporting costs from alcohol consumption for the years 2000 and later, using the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases. Cost estimates were converted into 2019 international dollars (Int$) per adult and into percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). For each study, weights were calculated to correct for the exclusion of cost indicators. Results Of 1708 studies identified, 29 were included, and the mean costs of alcohol use amounted to 817.6 Int$ per adult (95% confidence interval [CI] 601.8–1033.4), equivalent to 1.5% of the GDP (95% CI 1.2–1.7%). Adjusting for omission of cost components, the economic costs of alcohol consumption were estimated to amount to 1306 Int$ per adult (95% CI 873–1738), or 2.6% (95% CI 2.0–3.1%) of the GDP. About one-third of costs (38.8%) were incurred through direct costs, while the majority of costs were due to losses in productivity (61.2%). Discussion The identified cost studies were mainly conducted in high-income settings, with high heterogeneity in the employed methodology. Accounting for some methodological variations, our findings demonstrate that alcohol use continues to incur a high level of cost to many societies. Registration PROSPERO #CRD42020139594.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40273-021-01031-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:pharme:v:39:y:2021:i:7:d:10.1007_s40273-021-01031-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40273

DOI: 10.1007/s40273-021-01031-8

Access Statistics for this article

PharmacoEconomics is currently edited by Timothy Wrightson and Christopher I. Carswell

More articles in PharmacoEconomics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().