National Survey Warns of Danger of Alcohol Abuse in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The rate of alcohol consumption in Brazil is more alarming than the use of illegal substances, according to the Third National Survey on Drug Use by the Brazilian population, published by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ).

The survey found that more than half of Brazil’s population age 12 to 65 said they had consumed alcohol at some point in their lives.

Approximately 46 million (30.1 percent) reported having consumed at least one dose in the preceding 30 days, and approximately 2.3 million people showed signs of alcohol addiction in the 12 months prior to the survey.

The survey interviewed approximately 17,000 people age 12 – 65 throughout Brazil, between May and October 2015, and is considered to be one of the most complete due to its comprehensiveness. Foundation researchers also state that the results are representative of small municipalities and border areas.

Alcohol and violence

The correlation between alcohol and various forms of violence was additionally addressed by researchers, who found that approximately 14 percent of Brazilian men aged 12 to 65 drove after drinking alcohol in the 12 months preceding the interview. Among women, this estimate was 1.8 percent. The percentage of people who were involved in traffic accidents while under the influence of alcohol was 0.7 percent.

Some 4.4 million people claimed to have argued with someone under the influence of alcohol in the 12 months prior to the interview. Of these, 2.9 million were men, and 1.5 million were women. The reported incidence of “destroying or breaking something that was not theirs” under the influence of alcohol was also statistically significant and higher among men than among women (1.1 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively).

Risk Perception

Brazilians’ awareness of drugs correlates more with crack use than with alcohol: 44.5 percent think that the former is the drug associated with the highest number of deaths in the country, while only 26.7 percent would place alcohol at the top of the ranking.

According to Francisco Inácio Bastos, survey coordinator and researcher at FIOCRUZ’s Institute of Communication and Health Information, the main studies on the subject, such as the World Health Organization’s research on disease outbreaks, leave no doubt. “Alcohol is the substance most associated, directly or indirectly, with health hazards that lead to death,” said Bastos.

“Both alcohol and crack, however, pose great challenges to public health. Young Brazilians are using drugs with greater potential to cause harm and risks, such as crack itself. Besides, there is a propensity to use different drugs simultaneously. Therefore, updating the epidemiological data available in the country is particularly important, in order to answer questions on a topic such as drug use, which is becoming even more complex in a country as diverse as Brazil,” he cautioned.