A new study that was conducted by BMC Medicine shows that one in ten deaths in Mzansi is caused by alcohol abuse – especially those in poor areas.
The study found that overall, about 62,300 adults died from alcohol-attributable causes of death in South Africa in 2015.
It further states that nearly 60% of all alcohol-attributable deaths happened in the low socioeconomic status (SES) group.
South Africa is ranked the third biggest drinking nation in the African continent a World Health Organisation’s alcohol consumption study has suggested.
The study indicates that alcohol consumption in Mzansi was at 11.5 per litre, per capita for 2015, up from 11 litres the year before.
This was attributed to the level of unemployment figures in the low income brackets, which in most cases leads to alcohol abuse.
The study also indicates that men of middle and low SES had higher chances of dying from causes such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, injuries, liver cirrhosis, or pancreatitis.
“With a total of approximately 529,400 deaths from all causes, roughly one in ten deaths was attributable to alcohol use the concluded.
The researchers said there are a series of effective policy measures that can be taken up, to prevent alcohol-attributable harm such as limitations of availability and affordability of alcohol, restrictions of alcohol-marketing, and improvement of the healthcare system.
They further suggested that such broad brushed measures might fail to address the causes of death found to be most relevant as well as the high risk groups identified in the current study.
