Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2014

Overview

The protection of the health of populations by preventing and reducing the harmful use of alcohol is a public health priority, and one of the objectives of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to reduce the health and social burden caused by the harmful use of alcohol.

The Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol defines “harmful use” as drinking that causes detrimental health and social consequences for the drinker, the people around the drinker and society at large, as well as the patterns of drinking that are associated with increased risk of adverse health outcomes. The vision of this strategy is to improve the health and social outcomes of individuals, families and communities, considerably reducing morbidity and mortality due to harmful use of alcohol and their ensuing social consequences (WHO, 2010a).