Monitoring of Alcohol Use and Attributable Harm from an International Perspective

Alcohol consumption was shown to cause about 4% of the global burden of disease in 2000; about the same size of burden as due to tobacco smoking. In addition, alcohol has been linked to considerable social harm. The high public health relevance of alcohol has triggered considerable efforts to reduce alcohol-attributable harm. As part of these efforts, monitoring systems have been planned and in part implemented to serve as means of early warning and to measure success or failure of different interventions. The present article gives an overview of systems currently in place or planned for monitoring alcohol use and related harm from a global perspective, and makes recommendations concerning optimal indicators.