Colder weather and less sunlight are linked to more drinking, global alcohol study finds
- The study found people in Ukraine drank more than twice as much as Italians
With Northern Hemisphere days getting colder and shorter, a new study from the University of Pittsburgh gives reason to think about the odd relationship between alcohol and weather.
It found that throughout the world, drinking levels and liver disease correlated with climate and sunlight. Drinking and disease rose as average temperatures and hours of sunlight fell.
The study, which was published in the journal Hepatology, has public health implications at a time when deaths from cirrhosis of the liver have been rising, particularly among 25- to 34-year-olds. Ramon Bataller, senior author and chief of hepatology at University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, said knowing that heavy drinking is more common in colder climes could help officials who want to reduce damage from alcohol to direct resources toward regions at the highest risk. He also suggested that someone with a family history of alcoholism who has a choice between jobs in, say, Missouri and Minnesota would do well to pick the warmer state.
The World Health Organisation estimates that almost 6 per cent of deaths throughout the world can be attributed to alcohol misuse.