New research looking at the drinking habits of 4,000 people is a ‘wake-up call’ on the associated health harms, says Alcohol Change UK. Even for people drinking below the 14-unit weekly guidelines there are links with poorer sleep quality, poorer dental health, higher prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular disease, and ‘reduced daily functioning’, it says.
The research, which was commissioned by Alcohol Change UK and carried out by the Behavioural Insights Team consultancy, states that the ‘negative impact of alcohol on the health and wellbeing of the UK population is widespread’. People drinking at above the chief medical officer’s 14-unit recommended limit but below the levels associated with dependency were ‘experiencing harms at a significant scale’, it says, with men – particularly those from lower socioeconomic groups – showing ‘stronger links between health problems and their alcohol consumption’.
While the relationship between drinking levels and healthcare costs is complex, the report ‘cautiously’ estimates that, compared to people who never drink, harmful drinking may cost the NHS an additional £729 per person per year, hazardous drinking an additional £522 per person per year, and low-risk drinking an additional £153 per person per year.
The document calls for the government to ‘turn prevention into reality’, with the introduction of statutory alcohol labelling including information on health risks, as well as minimum unit pricing and tighter restrictions on marketing and advertising. It also wants to see the restoration of the public health grant to ‘at least’ its 2015-16 levels. A multi-year funding settlement for treatment and support would allow service providers to ‘plan services, recruit staff, and crucially, reach out to the 82 per cent of the people dependent on alcohol who are not currently accessing services’, it states.
There were almost 10,500 alcohol-specific deaths registered in the UK in 2023, according to ONS figures – the highest number ever recorded and an increase of almost 40 per cent since 2019. The World Health Organization estimates the number of alcohol-related deaths a year globally at 2.6m, 2m of which are among men.
‘Millions of us feel the negative effects of alcohol in our daily lives,’ said Alcohol Change UK chief executive Richard Piper. ‘But because we’re surrounded by slick adverts pushing the idea that every occasion needs an alcoholic drink, and because parts of our cultures still treat alcohol as essential, rather than optional, it’s much harder for us to connect the dots. When we as a society do talk about the downsides of alcohol, it is usually something that happens to “other people”, or in hard-to-comprehend, faceless statistics about rising alcohol deaths.
‘This harm isn’t inevitable, and the solutions are right in front of us,’ he continued. ‘Our environment can be improved so that whenever we want to make a positive change to our relationship with alcohol, we are supported and not hindered: with more accurate information about the dangers of alcohol, better protection from efforts to get us to drink more, and improved access to independent, evidence-based support.’
Alcohol harm across the drinking spectrum available here