Alcohol deaths to cost 1.5% GDP/year: Study

  1. According to a study ‘Health Impact and Economic Burden of Alcohol Consumption in India’, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, deaths attributed to alcohol use would cost 1.45% of India’s GDP each year.
  2. The study has noted that deaths in India attributed to alcohol use will lead to a loss of at least 258 million life years between 2011 and 2050. The loss of life years will amount to 75 days of life per capita by the year 2050.
  3. The study has not called for a ban on alcohol. It has projected that India could gain 552 million ‘quality adjusted’ life years if health and economic burden of alcohol are contained
  4. According to the recent report titled “Magnitude of Substance Use in India”, at the national level, about 14.6% of the people the ages of 10 and 75 are current users of alcohol. The report was published by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.