13.01.2025 - Can a connection between alcohol and cancer be observed at the population level? The answer is yes. If alcohol consumption in a country decreases, cancer mortality rates also decline.
Mats Ramstedt, research director at CAN, is one of the authors of a recently published scientific article on alcohol and cancer.
"This is the first more comprehensive study of the link between alcohol and cancer at the population level," says Mats Ramstedt.
About the research project
"We aimed to determine whether there is a correlation between a country's total alcohol consumption and its cancer mortality rate," explains Mats Ramstedt.
Total alcohol consumption is measured as the average number of liters of alcohol consumed per person per year. The study also examined whether the link varies between men and women and across countries with different harmful drinking patterns.
The results
If average alcohol consumption decreases, cancer mortality also declines.
"A one-liter change in total alcohol consumption was associated with a change in cancer mortality: a 1.1% change among men and a 0.9% change among women," says Mats Ramstedt.
Among men, the link was stronger for cancers of the lip, oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, and larynx, as well as for prostate cancer. Among women, the strongest association was observed for breast cancer.
The relationship also differed between countries:
"The associations were stronger in countries with more harmful drinking patterns, represented in the study by Nordic countries and North America," says Ramstedt.
More harmful drinking patterns are characterized, for example, by frequent binge drinking.
Why is this important?
"This increases our understanding of what influences cancer mortality at the population level. Cancer can now be added to the many causes of death affected by total alcohol consumption," says Mats Ramstedt.
Read the scientific article: Is there a link between per capita alcohol consumption and cancer mortality? - Dadgar - Drug and Alcohol Review - Wiley Online Library
Learn more about CAN's research.