The epidemiology of alcohol use disorders cross-nationally: Findings from the World Mental Health Surveys

Meyer D Glantz¹, Chrianna Bharat², Louisa Degenhardt², Nancy A Sampson³, Kate M Scott⁴, Carmen C W Lim⁵, Ali Al-Hamzawi⁶, Jordi Alonso⁷, Laura Helena Andrade⁸, Graca Cardoso⁹, Giovanni De Girolamo¹⁰, Oye Gureje¹¹, Yanling He¹², Hristo Hinkov¹³, Elie G Karam¹⁴, Georges Karam¹⁵, Viviane Kovess-Masfety¹⁶, Victor Lasebikan¹⁷, Sing Lee¹⁸, Daphna Levinson¹⁹, John McGrath²⁰, Maria-Elena Medina-Mora²¹, Constanta Mihaescu-Pintia²², Zeina Mneimneh²³, Jacek Moskalewicz²⁴, Fernando Navarro-Mateu²⁵, José Posada-Villa²⁶, Charlene Rapsey²⁷, Juan Carlos Stagnaro²⁸, Hisateru Tachimori²⁹, Margreet Ten Have³⁰, Nathan Tintle³¹, Yolanda Torres³², David R Williams³³, Yuval Ziv³⁴, Ronald C Kessler³; WHO World Mental Health Survey Collaborators

Affiliations

¹ Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research (DESPR), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. Electronic address: mglantz@nida.nih.gov.
² National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), UNSW, Sydney, Australia.
³ Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
⁵ Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
⁶ College of Medicine, Al-Qadisiya University, Diwaniya governorate, Iraq.
⁷ Health Services Research Unit, IMIM-Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain; CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain; Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.
⁸ Núcleo de Epidemiologia Psiquiátrica - LIM 23, Instituto de Psiquiatria Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
⁹ Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health and Chronic Diseases Research Center (CEDOC), NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
¹⁰ Unit of Epidemiological and Evaluation Psychiatry, Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS)-St. John of God Clinical Research Centre, Brescia, Italy.
¹¹ FRCPsych, Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria.
¹² Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
¹³ National Center of Public Health and Analyses, Sofia, Bulgaria.
¹⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Balamand University, Beirut, Lebanon; Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, St George Hospital University Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon; Institute for Development Research Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon.
¹⁵ Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, St George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon; Institute for Development Research Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon.
¹⁶ Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique (EHESP), EA 4057, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France.
¹⁷ Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
¹⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong.
¹⁹ Mental Health Services, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel.
²⁰ Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, The Park Centre for Mental Health, Wacol, Queensland, Australia; Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia; National Centre for Register-Based Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
²¹ National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Mexico City, Mexico.
²² National School of Public Health, Management and Professional Development, Bucharest, Romania.
²³ Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
²⁴ Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland.
²⁵ UDIF-SM, Subdirección General de Planificación, Innovación y Cronicidad, Servicio Murciano de Salud, IMIB-Arrixaca, CIBERESP-Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
²⁶ Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Bogota, Colombia.
²⁷ PGDipClinPsych, University of Otago, Dunedin School of Medicine, Department of Psychological Medicine, New Zealand.
²⁸ Departamento de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
²⁹ National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan.
³⁰ Trimbos-Instituut, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
³¹ Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa, USA.
³² Center for Excellence on Research in Mental Health, CES University, Medellin, Colombia.
³³ Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
³⁴ Mental Health Services, Israeli Ministry of Health, 39 Yermiyahu St, Jerusalem 9101002, Israel.

PMID: 31865172
PMCID: PMC7416527
DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.106128

The epidemiology of alcohol use disorders cross-nationally: Findings from the World Mental Health Surveys

Meyer D Glantz et al. Addict Behav. 2020 Mar.

. 2020 Mar:102:106128.

doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.106128. Epub 2019 Sep 16.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research (DESPR), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. Electronic address: mglantz@nida.nih.gov.
² National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), UNSW, Sydney, Australia.
³ Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
⁵ Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
⁶ College of Medicine, Al-Qadisiya University, Diwaniya governorate, Iraq.
⁷ Health Services Research Unit, IMIM-Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain; CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain; Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.
⁸ Núcleo de Epidemiologia Psiquiátrica - LIM 23, Instituto de Psiquiatria Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
⁹ Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health and Chronic Diseases Research Center (CEDOC), NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
¹⁰ Unit of Epidemiological and Evaluation Psychiatry, Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS)-St. John of God Clinical Research Centre, Brescia, Italy.
¹¹ FRCPsych, Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria.
¹² Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
¹³ National Center of Public Health and Analyses, Sofia, Bulgaria.
¹⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Balamand University, Beirut, Lebanon; Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, St George Hospital University Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon; Institute for Development Research Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon.
¹⁵ Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, St George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon; Institute for Development Research Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon.
¹⁶ Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique (EHESP), EA 4057, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France.
¹⁷ Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
¹⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong.
¹⁹ Mental Health Services, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel.
²⁰ Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, The Park Centre for Mental Health, Wacol, Queensland, Australia; Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia; National Centre for Register-Based Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
²¹ National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Mexico City, Mexico.
²² National School of Public Health, Management and Professional Development, Bucharest, Romania.
²³ Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
²⁴ Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland.
²⁵ UDIF-SM, Subdirección General de Planificación, Innovación y Cronicidad, Servicio Murciano de Salud, IMIB-Arrixaca, CIBERESP-Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
²⁶ Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Bogota, Colombia.
²⁷ PGDipClinPsych, University of Otago, Dunedin School of Medicine, Department of Psychological Medicine, New Zealand.
²⁸ Departamento de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
²⁹ National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan.
³⁰ Trimbos-Instituut, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
³¹ Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa, USA.
³² Center for Excellence on Research in Mental Health, CES University, Medellin, Colombia.
³³ Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
³⁴ Mental Health Services, Israeli Ministry of Health, 39 Yermiyahu St, Jerusalem 9101002, Israel.

PMID: 31865172
PMCID: PMC7416527
DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.106128

Erratum in

Corrigendum to "The epidemiology of alcohol use disorders cross-nationally: Findings from the World Mental Health Surveys" [Addict. Behav. 102 (2020) 106128].
Glantz MD, Bharat C, Degenhardt L, Sampson NA, Scott KM, Lim CCW, Al-Hamzawi A, Alonso J, Andrade LH, Cardoso G, De Girolamo G, Gureje O, He Y, Hinkov H, Karam EG, Karam G, Kovess-Masfety V, Lasebikan V, Lee S, Levinson D, McGrath J, Medina-Mora ME, Mihaescu-Pintia C, Mneimneh Z, Moskalewicz J, Navarro-Mateu F, Posada-Villa J, Rapsey C, Stagnaro JC, Tachimori H, Have MT, Tintle N, Torres Y, Williams DR, Ziv Y, Kessler RC; WHO World Mental Health Survey Collaborators. Glantz MD, et al. Addict Behav. 2020 Jul;106:106381. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106381. Epub 2020 Mar 21. Addict Behav. 2020. PMID: 32209298 No abstract available.

Abstract

Background: Prevalences of Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) and Mental Health Disorders (MHDs) in many individual countries have been reported but there are few cross-national studies. The WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative standardizes methodological factors facilitating comparison of the prevalences and associated factors of AUDs in a large number of countries to identify differences and commonalities.

Methods: Lifetime and 12-month prevalence estimates of DSM-IV AUDs, MHDs, and associations were assessed in the 29 WMH surveys using the WHO CIDI 3.0.

Results: Prevalence estimates of alcohol use and AUD across countries and WHO regions varied widely. Mean lifetime prevalence of alcohol use in all countries combined was 80%, ranging from 3.8% to 97.1%. Combined average population lifetime and 12-month prevalence of AUDs were 8.6% and 2.2% respectively and 10.7% and 4.4% among non-abstainers. Of individuals with a lifetime AUD, 43.9% had at least one lifetime MHD and 17.9% of respondents with a lifetime MHD had a lifetime AUD. For most comorbidity combinations, the MHD preceded the onset of the AUD. AUD prevalence was much higher for men than women. 15% of all lifetime AUD cases developed before age 18. Higher household income and being older at time of interview, married, and more educated, were associated with a lower risk for lifetime AUD and AUD persistence.

Conclusions: Prevalence of alcohol use and AUD is high overall, with large variation worldwide. The WMH surveys corroborate the wide geographic consistency of a number of well-documented clinical and epidemiological findings and patterns.

Keywords: Abuse; Alcohol; Comorbidity; Dependence; Prevalence; Remission.

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Figures

**Figure 1:**
Age of DSM-IV alcohol use disorder onset distributions among those with a diagnosis by survey income groups

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. World Health Organization. Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2018. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2018.
1. Rehm J, Mathers C, Popova S, et al. Global burden of disease and injury and economic cost attributable to alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders. Lancet (London, England). 2009;373(9682):2223. - PubMed
1. GBD 2016 Alcohol Collaborators. Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. The Lancet. 2018;392(10152):1015–35. - PMC - PubMed
1. Baxter AJ, Patton G, Scott KM, et al. Global Epidemiology of Mental Disorders: What Are We Missing? PLOS ONE. 2013;8(6):e65514. - PMC - PubMed
1. Steel Z, Marnane C, Iranpour C, et al. The global prevalence of common mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis 1980вЂ“2013. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2014;43(2):476–93. - PMC - PubMed

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The epidemiology of alcohol use disorders cross-nationally: Findings from the World Mental Health Surveys

Affiliations

The epidemiology of alcohol use disorders cross-nationally: Findings from the World Mental Health Surveys

Authors

Affiliations

Erratum in

Abstract

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical