International Comparisons of Alcohol Consumption

International comparisons of alcohol consumption and its consequences can serve multiple purposes. For example, despite differences among countries in drinking cultures, drink sizes and strengths, and methods of measuring alcohol consumption, international survey research has provided a substantial amount of information on the rates of abstinence or current drinking, the frequency of drinking or binge drinking, and the mean consumption among both adults and youths in many countries. Other studies using aggregate-level data have analyzed per capita alcohol consumption in various countries. These studies can be used to relate per capita consumption to certain alcohol-related outcomes and to evaluate changes of both consumption and different outcomes within a country or across countries over time. Some problems associated with international research, however, such as issues of comparability of surveys, still need to be resolved.