Kritisk analys av skattningar av samhällets kostnader för alkoholkonsumtion – en diskussion om fem studiers metodval och resultat

The consumption of alcohol imposes costs on the society and several cost-of-illness studies have been conducted to estimate these costs. This essay presents the results from five cost-of-illness studies and examines the methodology used. The differences in results are discussed in reference to the differences in the applied methods.
The results differ immensely from US$ 91 to US$ 2,433 per capita. These differences could partly be explained by six factors; 1) differences in the costs included; 2) attributable fraction of alcohol consumption in different diseases and phenomena; 3) methods used (in particular for indirect costs); 4) level of discount rate; 5) definitions including area of estimation and 6) institutional dissimilarities.
A discussion about costs to the Swedish society when the consumption increases to the level of the European Union estimates this to at least US$ 435 per capita, i.e. an increase by 40–50 percent.
The results of this essay stress the importance of similar methods and definitions in order to be able to compare international studies and evaluate national policies.