Background: Alcohol consumption is one of the main risk factors for death by road injuries, but little is known about the global distribution of the population-attributable risk (PAR) of alcohol use for death by road injuries.
Methods: We used publicly available data from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) to estimate the PAR of alcohol use for 5 types of road injury, globally and individually for available countries, by socio-demographic index (SDI), and by age, sex, and year from 1990 to 2019.
Results: 6.6% of all road injuries in 2019 were attributable to alcohol consumption, with large variations worldwide; the highest burden was in Europe and among countries classified in the high-middle SDI. PAR was higher in men than in women, and among younger individuals. Important variations in PAR of alcohol were also observed by road injury type, with motorcyclist road injuries having the highest PAR. Overall, PAR showed a small increase during 1990-2019; younger (<39 years old) men showed an increasing trend during this period, while older women had a decreasing trend in PAR.
Conclusions: PAR for alcohol and road injuries is not homogenous. Large PAR for alcohol and road deaths was found in Europe, among men, young adults, and motorcyclists. These results could help public health agencies, law enforcement, and the public guide efforts to reduce these deaths.
Keywords: Global Burden of Disease; alcohol; population-attributable risk; road injury.
© 2021 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.