Alcohol, binge drinking alarm: worry « drinking to get drunk » especially among minors and women

Alcohol consumers in Italy are 36 millionequal to 77.5% of males and 57.6% of females. «Among consumers at riskespecially young people worry (about 1,260,000 between 11 and 24 years old, including 615,000 minors) and women (about 2.5 million, with 13.3% of consumers at risk among minors 11-17 year olds). The 4.13 million stand out Binge Drinker (74,000 are minor), whose trend in the last 10 years shows an increase of 80% in females, going from 2.5% in 2013 to 4.5% in 2023; Even males see an increase of 19% between 2019 and 2023, without any mention of the expected drop in consumption aimed at intoxication « .

To take the photograph is, like every year, theNational Alcohol Observatory of the Istituto Superiore di SanitàONA-MISS, which reworked through the earthquake (alcohol monitoring system), the data of the Istat multiscopo, on the occasion of the Alcohol Prevention Day (APD). The data were presented today at the ISS during the annual international conference. «In 2023, in Italy, There is no expected reductions in risk behaviors linked to the use of alcoholL – reads the report -. Consumers at risk is stable, especially among the most vulnerable targets of the population: minors, young people, women, the elderly. Drinking to get drunk (binge drinking), widespread among all population bands, does not spare the elderlyamong which, moreover, there are the highest frequencies of harmful consumers with alcohol use disorders not intercepted by the National Health Service. The consumption off the meal of meal are constantly increasing among women (23.9%) including 1 million and 230 thousand consumers who drink to get drunk. In recovery, the increase in mortality totally attributable to alcohol where a reduction was awaited, recorded above all for the productive age classes for both sexes ».

« Of the 780,000 harmful consumersclinically patients with alcohol use disorders (DUA), 310.000 are women. All harmful consumers are in the need to be taken over, while only 8.1% are, not being 91.9% of harmful consumers « in Need for Treatment » never intercepted by the NHS « , concludes the ISS.

Minors, teenagers, women and the elderly the most affected bands

«Alcohol consumption in Italy highlight a consolidated and worrying situation of all the indicators monitored of damage and risk, rampant in the most vulnerable bands of the population: minors, adolescents, women and the elderly « says Emanuele Scafato, director of the A on-As. « National and regional prevention, as effective as possible, is possible if you aim for the main targets ».

The measures to be taken

«It is necessary to raise attention to young people, minors in particularpredicting greater protections in places of aggregation and health education in schools. It is shown that it is effective to invest in prevention and activate the early interception of consumers at risk, especially with differentiated interventions for women and the elderly, favoring counseling and motivational intervention « , adds the expert.

More resources to care and assistance networks

Finally, concludes Scafato «It is necessary to ensure adequate resources for the treating networks and the application of the guidelines for alcohol use disorders that the ISS has made available to the SSN structures for the treatment of consumers with damage or alcoholic, clinical patients in all respects in need for treatment. An increase in awareness of the risks deriving from the use of alcohol must be encouraged In support of people, families and in compliance with the objectives of the United Nations strategies, which we have not reached in 2025, but in which we are busy for 2030 « .