[Alcohol use in France]

Abstract

Alcohol consumption has regularly decreased in France since the 1950s, essentially in connection with the decrease of wine consumption, with disaffection for the "table wine", for the benefit of better quality wines that are drunk in lesser quantity. France is still part of the most alcohol drinking countries in the European Union but is no longer situated at the very top of the ranking. General population surveys results tend to confirm the evolution of sale of alcohol: since 1992, among 15-75 years old, alcohol daily users proportion was divided by two, from 24% in 1992 to 11% in 2010, currently replaced by a more occasional use. We indeed observe in the general population a profile of young adults having a strong and punctual consumption, and an older profile of less important but regular consumption. The proportion of problematic alcohol users remains stable, concerning approximately a person on 10 in the adult population. The part of persons who declared they have drunk six glasses or more during the same occasion at least once a month during the last twelve months increased from 15% in 2005 to 18% in 2010. Binge drinking and the frequency of drunkenness have increased among teenagers and young adults these last years. These behaviors can lead to short term risks, such as accidents, undergone violence, unwanted or unprotected sexual intercourse, even coma, whereas chronic alcohol use can lead to numerous hepatic, cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric complications, as well as cancers. With such sanitary consequences, alcohol is a major risk factor of avoidable morbidity and premature mortality. The beneficial effect that seems to have a moderate consumption of alcohol on the risk of death by cardiovascular diseases has brought about recurring scientific controversies. However, its major noxious effects in terms of non-transmitted diseases should remain the major point in public health decisions on alcoholization.