Russians are known to be hard drinkers, although the consumption of liquor keeps going down in the last decade. A team of researchers from Finland put a price tag on alcohol use.
The real cost of alcohol to a society
The costs arise when there are alcohol-driven disorders that impose welfare and health care burdens.
A research by the University of Eastern Finland in conjunction with the Institute for Health and Welfare and Aalto University used a machine learning technique to estimate costs of problems caused by alcohol abuse.
16 various risk factors were considered, including marital status, age, gender, employment, as well as whether the person was homeless, had a criminal record.
Scientists also looked what happens when the patient stops drinking.
Data of 363 subjects with an existing diagnosis was reviewed.
The highest cost was arising from chronic health conditions caused by drinking.
The average cost of care for a patient with 2 chronic conditions or more was around USD 30,000 higher than normal. There were also heightened costs due to requirement for specialized care and social payments of income support.
If a person quit drinking, the cost of care dropped substantially. For instance, among people who quit, 43% of patients who previously were diagnosed with having an alcohol disorder belonged to the group with the lowest cost, as compared to 24% of current drinkers.
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