The Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders provides a comprehensive overview of alcohol consumption, related harm, policy responses, and treatment capacities worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) collects data from Member States and organizes it in line with the health target 3.5 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which focuses on strengthening prevention and treatment of substance abuse.
The report’s chapter on alcohol and health builds on previous WHO global status reports and provides the latest data on alcohol consumption trends, alcohol-attributable disease burden, and worldwide policy responses. Data on the treatment of substance use disorders is also collected from countries to describe the status of treatment responses to alcohol and drug use disorders.
A new service capacity index is proposed as an additional indicator for monitoring progress in achieving SDG health target 3.5 in the treatment of alcohol and drug use disorders. The report concludes by outlining broad directions for international action to accelerate progress towards meeting this health target.