Global statistics on addictive behaviours: 2014 status report

Background and aims Addictive behaviours are among the greatest scourges on humankind. It is important to estimate the extent of the problem globally and in different geographical regions. Such estimates are available, but there is a need to collate and evaluate these to arrive at the best available...

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Published in:Addiction (Abingdon, England) England), 2015-06, Vol.110 (6), p.904-919
Main Authors: Gowing, Linda R., Ali, Robert L., Allsop, Steve, Marsden, John, Turf, Elizabeth E., West, Robert, Witton, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviours
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Alcohol Drinking - epidemiology
Cannabis
Drug addiction
Drugs
Epidemiology
Female
Gambling
Gambling - epidemiology
Global Health - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
population prevalence
Prevalence
Psychotropic Drugs
public health
Sex Distribution
Smoking - epidemiology
Statistics
Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology
United Nations
World Health Organization
Young Adult
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Summary:Background and aims Addictive behaviours are among the greatest scourges on humankind. It is important to estimate the extent of the problem globally and in different geographical regions. Such estimates are available, but there is a need to collate and evaluate these to arrive at the best available synthetic figures. Addiction has commissioned this paper as the first of a series attempting to do this. Methods Online sources of global, regional and national information on prevalence and major harms relating to alcohol use, tobacco use, unsanctioned psychoactive drug use and gambling were identified through expert review and assessed. The primary data sources located were the websites of the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. Summary statistics were compared with recent publications on the global epidemiology of addictive behaviours. Results An estimated 4.9% of the world's adult population (240 million people) suffer from alcohol use disorder (7.8% of men and 1.5% of women), with alcohol causing an estimated 257 disability‐adjusted life years lost per 100 000 population. An estimated 22.5% of adults in the world (1 billion people) smoke tobacco products (32.0% of men and 7.0% of women). It is estimated that 11% of deaths in males and 6% of deaths in females each year are due to tobacco. Of ‘unsanctioned psychoactive drugs’, cannabis is the most prevalent at 3.5% globally, with each of the others at
ISSN:0965-2140
1360-0443
DOI:10.1111/add.12899