While the French are massively benefiting from the reopening of the terraces, Inserm recalls that “any alcohol consumption, even low, has a deleterious effect on health”.
- Alcohol consumption is directly or indirectly involved in the occurrence of around sixty diseases.
- In France, there are nearly 43 million alcohol consumers.
In France, high levels of alcohol consumption affect both young people and seniors, according to a new collective expertise from Inserm.
Experienced for the first time in adolescence, alcohol consumption becomes regular (10 times or more/month) for 8% of 17-year-olds, while 40 to 50% of them report having had at least one alcohol consumption. significant occasional (5 or more drinks on one occasion) monthly. Among adults, the average consumption per day is 27 g of pure alcohol per person (nearly 3 glasses).
41,000 deaths
Except “any consumption, even low, has a deleterious effect on health”, emphasizes Inserm. Alcohol was the 7th cause of loss of years of life in good health in the world in 2016, and also the leading cause of hospitalization in France. Mortality attributable to alcohol, higher in France than elsewhere in Europe, is 11% of deaths for men and 4% for women among those aged 15 and over, i.e. 41,000 deaths (30,000 among men and 11,000 in women).
The expert report underlines that the price of alcohol, its availability or the standards relating to its consumption are associated with positive perceptions and therefore encourage drinking. It shows that, beyond individual factors, the marketing of alcohol (product, price, advertising, access to the product) influences the levels/patterns of consumption and plays a key role in the drinking behavior of young people. “The Internet and social networks, where advertising is poorly regulated, are particularly invested by alcohol producers”, say the scientists.
For more prevention messages
For the toughening of the Évin law on the regulation of advertising and the supervision of the sale of alcohol, the group of experts recommends in particular the use of prevention messages. According to them, it should be remembered:
– low-risk drinking benchmarks[1],
– zero alcohol, particularly during pregnancy and the pre-conception period,
– women’s greater biological vulnerability to alcohol.
[1] No more than 2 glasses/d and not every day.
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