For example, if you drink 7 days a week and 5-6 beers a day at around $24 for a 12 pack of domestic beer, you’d be spending around $120 on beer alone in a week. Or $480 a month and $5,760 a year—which would not even account for the times you go out and drink at bars and restaurants. You may also begin suffering from mood swings or have trouble concentrating, which could lead to getting agitated more quickly. When this occurs, it can affect the people you are around, especially if you’re romantically involved with someone. Your significant other may also try and make up excuses for your drinking or improper conduct at social functions.

1. Societal factors include level of economic development, culture, social norms, availability of alcohol, and implementation and enforcement of alcohol policies.
2. About one-third of costs (38.8%) were incurred through direct costs, while the majority of costs were due to losses in productivity (61.2%).
3. However, only eight studies reported measures of uncertainty around selected point estimates and no single study reported measures of uncertainty for all estimates.
4. When this occurs, it can affect the people you are around, especially if you’re romantically involved with someone.

We show that there is large variation in the studies with respect to which cost components are considered and that these differences should be accounted for. However, we also found methodological homogeneity, as nearly all studies followed a top-down approach, with indirect costs being calculated based on human capital assumptions. If all cost components were to be considered, the economic costs of alcohol consumption would amount to 1306 international dollars (Int$) per adult (95% confidence interval 873–1738), 1872 Int$ per drinker (95% CI 1279–2466), or equivalent to 2.6% (95% CI 2.0–3.1%) of the gross domestic product. For (b), we divided the costs by the respective study weights, separated for the two cost indicators, thus correcting for omissions of relevant cost components.

Second, we calculated a cost equivalent as a percentage of the GDP by dividing the estimated costs by the location-specific GDP of the same year for which costs were estimated. Alcohol use has been identified as a major risk factor for burden of disease [1,2,3], leading to the introduction of reduction goals in major UN and other international frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals [4, 5]. However, alcohol consumption differs from many other risk factors, as attributable health burden is not restricted to the drinker alone but also extends to others, including those who have abstained from alcohol during their lifetime (e.g. via drunk driving or maternal alcohol consumption [6]). Furthermore, harm attributable to alcohol is not restricted to health but comprises many other aspects of life and sustainable development, such as criminal behaviour [7] and loss of economic productivity (e.g. Rehm et al. and Thavorncharoensap et al. [8, 9]). A recent WHO report describes how alcohol consumption undermines commitments to achieve 13 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, by impacting on not only a range of health-related indicators but also on economic and social development, the environment, and equality [10]. Alcohol use has been identified as a major risk factor for burden of disease [1–3], leading to the introduction of reduction goals in major UN and other international frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals [4, 5].

The percentage of alcohol-attributable deaths among men amounts to 7.7 % of all global deaths compared to 2.6 % of all deaths among women. Total alcohol per capita consumption in 2016 among male and female drinkers worldwide was on average 19.4 litres of pure alcohol for males and 7.0 litres for females. There are also financial downsides to regular drinking, especially if one has a habit of drinking frequently and/or in large quantities. We decided to take a closer look at how United States cities compare when it comes to drinking habits and the cost of these over a lifetime. To do so, we first looked at City-Data for the number of drinks each city’s inhabitants drink in a week on average.

Availability of Data and Material

This can be a heavy burden for them to carry and may place a distance between their friends and family as well. It can be detrimental to your relationships with friends, family members, coworkers and anyone else can you overdose on kratom you meet as you go through your daily life. As alcohol abuse progresses, you may begin to withdraw from society or get easily upset at acquaintances if the amount or frequency of your use is brought up.

Alcohol-attributable costs to society are captured by cost-of-illness studies, however estimates are often not comparable, e.g. due to the omission of relevant cost components. In this contribution we (1) summarize the societal costs attributable to alcohol use, and (2) estimate the total costs under the drinking levels defined national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism niaaa assumption that all cost components are considered. In all studies examined in this study, alcohol use incurred substantial costs and, if all harms caused by alcohol were to be included, these costs are estimated to amount, on average, to 1306 Int$ per adult or 2.6% of the GDP in the countries examined.

Correlation of the Two Cost Indicators

Alcohol consumption can have an impact not only on the incidence of diseases, injuries and other health conditions, but also on their outcomes and how these evolve over time. Implementing effective community-based interventions can reduce excessive drinking and its costs. When you look at how much drinking alcohol can affect your life, especially for those who are potentially abusing it or suffering from alcoholism, it may be time to ask yourself, “Is it worth it? ” Your health, the relationships you have, your finances, and your career goals may all be affected and at the end of the day, you have to decide what you want your future to look like. † Largest number of drinks consumed on an occasion in the past 30 days among adults who reported binge drinking.

While our search was systematic and we did not rely only on standard databases but also on expertise from other researchers, we may not have identified all relevant studies, which are often only published on government websites. Furthermore, the conclusions of any systematic review can only be as good as the underlying studies. As the risk assessment indicated, the overall quality of the studies was rated as being of medium quality, meaning that there are important areas to improve upon. For instance, only a few studies reported measures of uncertainty for selected estimates, which prohibits a complete meta-analytical summary of cost estimates.

Health, safety and socioeconomic problems attributable to alcohol can be reduced when governments formulate and implement appropriate policies. In addition to how much is typically spent, we also wanted to see how much people could save by altering their drinking habits. Annually, people in these cities could save anywhere from $268 to $507 just by decreasing their alcohol use by 25%. Heavy drinker or otherwise, you may have experienced a hangover at some point in your drinking history.

Supplementary file2 (XLSX 19 kb)

Using CDC data on the average life expectancy in each state, we then found the number of drinks consumed over a lifetime on average. Finally, we used Expatistan to find the average cost of alcoholic drinks in each city in order to determine the cost of drinking over various periods of time, including a full lifetime (age 21 and up). Our calculation included the cost of two drinks “out” each week, and all remaining drinks at home.

Across the U.S., drinking culture has made consuming alcohol a normal part of our everyday lives. Whether happy hours with coworkers, a glass of wine with dinner, a beer or two to take the edge off of a long day, or late-night partying with friends—enjoying adult beverages is a proverbial rite of passage amongst Americans. Because of the life expectancy factor in our lifetime calculation, the ranking of cities varies slightly between these two lists. Looking at our one-year calculation, Miami, FL rises to the second most expensive city in the U.S. ($1,996.80), topped only by New York, NY ($2,029.82).

For example, we calculated how much direct costs are driven by hospitalization costs in all studies. Second, we summarized how many of the possible cost categories at this level were considered in each study, weighted by the relative contribution of each category (calculated in the first step). By repeating this procedure, we accounted for the inclusion of all relevant cost categories at each level for each study.

Such an approach would not only further facilitate better comparability between countries but would also allow for benchmarking between countries, which is one of the major methodologies used to improve health care systems (e.g. Bennett et al. [56] for the area of non-communicable disease). It would also take away one of the major and repeated 3 ways to pass a urine drug test criticisms of cost studies [55], which we have addressed in this contribution. In fact, our findings suggest that current cost estimates are largely unrelated to the underlying alcohol exposure involved, and rather are driven by differences in methodology or by country-specific factors, rendering cross-country comparisons rather meaningless.