Preventing Alcohol-related Harm in Australia - Department of Health

The priorities for preventative action that aresuggested in this paper are reflected in theoverarching discussion paper Australia: theHealthiest Country by 2020.1.2 The drinking culture in AustraliaAlcohol plays many roles in contemporaryAustralian society – as a relaxant, as anaccompaniment to socialising and celebration,as a source of employment and exports, and asa generator of tax revenue. It is intrinsically partof Australian culture. The majority of Australianswho regularly drink, do so in moderation.Around three-quarters (72.6%) of Australiansdrink below levels for long-term risk of harm.[1]However, short-term consumption of alcoholat harmful levels, while only occasional, is alsoa prominent feature of the drinking culture inAustralia. One in five Australians (20.4%) drink atshort-term risky/high-risk levels at least once amonth.[2] Put another way, this equates to morethan 42 million occasions of binge drinking inAustralia each year.While overall levels of alcohol consumption anddrinking patterns have not changed markedlyover the past decade, there is an increasingcommunity awareness of the problem of harmfulconsumption of alcohol. These patterns continueto produce substantial costs to the health ofAustralians. Alcohol consumption accounts for3.2% of the total burden of disease and injuryin Australia: 4.9% in males and 1.6% in females.[3] Beyond its impacts on the health andwellbeing of individuals and communities, theharmful consumption of alcohol also impactssignificantly across a range of other areas,including workforce productivity, healthcareservices such as hospitals and ambulances, roadaccidents, law enforcement, property damageand insurance administration.The annual cost to the Australian communityfrom alcohol-related harm is estimated to bemore than $15 billion.[4] In Australia, concernin the general community about alcohol’sadverse health and social effects is growing.A recent survey of Australians revealed that 84%of people are concerned about the impact ofalcohol on the community.[5]1.3 Determinants of drinking behaviourThe current national alcohol strategy[6] observesthat Australia’s drinking cultures are drivenby a mix of powerful, intangible social forces,such as habits, customs, images and norms,and other interlocking and equally powerfultangible forces relating to the social, economicand physical availability of alcohol, includingpromotion and marketing, age restrictions, price,outlets, hours of access and service practices[6](see Fig. 1). Certainly, there is no single factorthat determines why people drink at harmfullevels. Health-damaging behaviours relatedto poor diet, inadequate exercise, cigarettesmoking, excessive drinking and illicit drug useappear to be embedded in a complex networkof social determinants and risk and protectivefactors, and behaviours are also mediated bycultural influences.[7]2