The prevalence of male alcohol consumption is over twice as high as that of female consumption, and the underage drinking rate in South Africa is not only disturbing, but also suggests alcohol craving starts early in life. Show Source Texts

 

 

 
Harmful patterns of alcohol consumption, such as underage drinking, heavy alcohol use, or binge alcohol use, are very common among certain demographic groups, and COVIDa19 lockdowns are exacerbating these trends.

Drinking is associated with the risk of developing health problems, mental and behavioral disorders, alcohol addiction, serious non-communicable diseases, such as liver cirrhosis, certain types of cancer, and cardiovascular diseases, and injuries from violence and collisions on roads.

The context in which drinking occurs plays a significant role in causing alcohol-related harms, especially related to health effects from intoxication and, infrequent cases, the quality of the alcohol consumed. Show Source Texts

Alarmingly, most South African alcohol consumers are also classified as heavy, or binge, drinkers, with 59% of the population having consumed over 60 grams or more of pure alcohol at least once in 30 days.

The findings echo with other South African data reporting heavy drinking. Show Source Texts

The total per capita total consumption by adults of liters of pure alcohol was obtained from the World Health Organizations Global Information System on Alcohol and Health.

38 In total, South Africa consumed 10.39 liters of pure alcohol per capita in 2012. According to the WHO data, the population consumed 28.9 L per year – per capita – of pure alcohol, which is the fifth highest rate of consumption worldwide, lower than Namibia (31.3 L), Eswatini (32.7 L), the Cook Islands (32.9 L) and Tunisia (33.4 L). Show Source Texts

Even after definitions, Trungenstein and colleagues found that 53% of respondents from Tshwane Metropolitan Province, who reported some consumption, qualified as heavy drinkers.