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Case example 1: Botswana

“The economic consequences of chronic alcohol use are devastating and can seriously hinder any sense of development. In a study of alcohol use among the Basarwa of the Kgalagadi and Ghanzi districts in Botswana, informants stated that since a significant proportion of household income was spent on liquor, less cash was available for food, clothing and other essential items. As one informant succinctly stated ‘alcohol makes poor people poorer’. A person who is regularly under the influence of alcohol will have little motivation or interest in working, unless it is to obtain money to buy more alcohol. One particular problem is that a regular drinker can easily become economically tied and indebted to alcohol vendors who are only too pleased to provide alcohol‘on credit’.

Child neglect is an increasing problem when parents are intoxicated so early in the day that they are not able to prepare food for their children, even if there is food available. A concern is that some parents will sell food to buy alcohol while others will give alcohol to their children as a food substitute and to stave off hunger. Generally, the neglect of young children due to alcohol abuse means that these children are under-socialized as well as malnourished, leading to a refusal to attend school, begging and stealing for food, and other delinquent activities.

Source: Molamu & MacDonald (1996)”

Source & © WHO  Global Status Report on Alcohol 2004, p.61

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Other Figures & Tables on this publication:

Table 4: Top 20 countries with highest beverage-specific adult per capita [APC] consumption

Table 6: Rate of last year abstainers among the adult population

Table 7: Heavy drinkers among the adult population

Table 8: Heavy episodic drinkers among the adult population

Table 9: Alcohol dependence among adult population

Table 10: Heavy episodic drinkers among youths

Table 11: Heavy episodic drinkers among young adults aged 18-24 years old

Table 13: Relative risks for beneficial alcohol-related health effects for different drinking categories (compared to abstainers)

Table 15: Attributable fractions of acute alcohol-related health effects in the adult general population

Table 16: Global burden of disease in 2000 attributable to alcohol according to major disease categories (DALYs in 000s)

Table 17: Burden of disease in 2000 attributable to tobacco, alcohol and drugs by developing status and sex

Table 18: Characteristics of adult alcohol consumption in different regions of the world 2000 (population weighted averages)

Table 19: Alcohol-related harm in different regions of the world (population weighted averages), DALYs (000s)

Table 20: Selected population alcohol-attributable fractions, by disease category, sex and level of development (% DALYs for each cause) in 2000

Table 21: Standardized mortality rates (per 100 000) for acute and chronic disease and injury, by WHO regional subgroupings (data shown is for most recent year available)

Table 21 [bis]: Social and economic costs of alcohol abuse for selected countries

Figure 3: Population weighted means of the recorded adult per capita consumption in the WHO Regions 1961-1999

Figure 4: Model of alcohol consumption, mediating variables, and short-term and longterm consequences

Figure 5: Global disease burden (in DALYs) in 2001 from alcohol use disorders, by age group and sex

Figure 6: Global deaths in 2001 from alcohol use disorders, by age group and sex

Footnote on the meaning of "adults"

Table 3: Total recorded alcohol per capita consumption (15+)

Table 5: Estimated volume of unrecorded consumption in litres of pure alcohol per capita for population older than 15 for the years after 1995

Case example 1: India

Case example 2: Venezuela

Case example 3: Malaysia

Case example 4: Uganda

Case example 5: Botswana

Case example 6: Ethiopia

Case example 7: Egypt

Case example 8: Ghana

Case example 9: Kenya

Case example 10: United Republic of Tanzania

Case example 1: Botswana

Case example 2: Nepal

Case example 3: Cameroon

Case example 4: India

Case example 5: Malaysia